Skondras sees red but Accies earn their point
HAMILTON moved out of the relegation area and into tenth place after a gutsy performance earned them a point despite playing the entire second half with 10 men.
Martin Canning’s side took the lead early on through Massimo Donati, but Ioannis Skondras was sent off at the end of the first half for a tackle on Ryan Dow.
Both managers agreed at full-time that referee Steven McLean had called it wrong and Skondras should have received only a booking.
‘It is never a sending-off,’ fumed Canning. ‘Skondras has come across, but he has slid as he has gone to win the ball. It is a foul, of that there is no doubt, but Dow has nicked it beyond Skondras and because they are both going at speed the referee thinks it is worse than what it is.
‘It is a game changer. It is one that we will look at and we will appeal it. However, overall it was a gutsy performance and our desire which got us a point.’
Ross County manager Jim McIntyre said: ‘It’s not a sendingoff. I’ve watched it back and Hamilton are very unfortunate.
‘We then faced 10 men and it’s hard to break teams down. So, we’ll take the point but we are a long way from safety. We still have lots of hard work ahead.’
The dismissal put Accies under the cosh and the visitors levelled through Craig Curran on the hour mark.
They looked set to go on and win the game, but the home side held firm and Remi Matthews made two super saves in the Accies goal.
Canning held a team meeting on the pitch 15 minutes before kick-off, and whatever he said clearly worked because his team came flying out of the traps and took the game to their opponents.
Dougie Imrie had a shot cleared off the line by Martin Woods after just two minutes, and 60 seconds later they did score.
Donati connected sweetly with his right boot and his curling effort flew into the top right-hand corner of Scott Fox’s net. It was a fantastic finish from the Italian midfielder.
County were stunned, but they soon penetrated Accies. Tim Chow had a fine chance to level it, but wasted an effort from 12 yards.
The game had a proper pace to it and it was not long before Fox was back in action and Alex D’Acol’s volley was superbly saved.
There was enough from the visitors to suggest that they had a goal in them and there was plenty still to be done by the home team to secure three precious points.
And that point was emphasised right on the stroke of half-time when Hamilton were reduced to ten men. Skondras was given a straight red after Dow tried to accelerate away just eight yards inside the Accies half. The home supporters were outraged by the decision.
County hit the woodwork in the 56th minute when Dow’s powerful 25-yard shot crashed back off the crossbar. Matthews then produced a stunning stop to deny Woods.
However, Matthews was beaten in the 60th minute when a trundler from Curran managed to go through two players and into the net.
Two minutes into stoppage time, Imrie raced up the park wide on the right and held the ball up to wait for Alex Gogic. The Cypriot had a clear sight of goal 12 yards out but he put the ball well over the crossbar.