Ten-man Hamilton show team spirit to see off table-toppers

HAMILTON head coach Stuart Taylor believes the togetherness and spirit of his 10 men enabled them to end Inverness Caley Thistle’s unbeaten start to the Championship campaign and pick up three points on their own patch for the first time since January.

Accies have toiled at home this year but first-half goals from Lewis Smith and Andy Ryan put them in a commanding position against the Championship front-runners.

But they had to do it the hard way as shortly after Ryan doubled their advantage Reegan Mimnaugh received a second yellow card from referee Euan Anderson.

It meant for just over an hour Inverness had an extra man but it was only in the closing stages of injury-time that they finally broke Hamilton’s resistance through Michael Gardyne.

Taylor said: ‘I’m really proud of the lads. We came out of the traps right away, went 2-0 up and then for the last hour of the game I felt we defended well.

‘They all put a shift in when we went down to 10 men, they were brilliant. We showed a lot of spirit and character to win the game.

‘You need that character and team-spirit. We just need to keep working and build on this.’

Hamilton had failed to hit the back of the net in their previous three Championship outings but they took just five minutes to break the deadlock.

Ryan gathered possession inside the penalty area and rolled it back into the path of Smith, and without breaking stride the midfielder unleashed a left-foot shot that flew past Mark Ridgers.

Hamilton doubled their advantage after 27 minutes when the roles were reversed as Smith provided the assist for Ryan.

Smith picked out his captain on the edge of the penalty area and Ryan produced a sumptuous finish as he curled a left-foot shot into the bottom corner.

Just a few minutes later, Hamilton were reduced to 10 men as Mimnaugh, who had been booked after seven minutes, lunged in on Inverness substitute Shane Sutherland. Referee Euan Robertson had no option but to produce a second yellow card and send the young midfielder off.

Inverness ramped up the pressure after the interval and had Hamilton pinned back for long spells, but they didn’t really ask too many questions of Accies goalkeeper Ryan Fulton.

The hosts put in a tremendous amount of effort and got a break when Cameron Harper hit the bar. It was only in injury-time that Gardyne halved the deficit.

Inverness manager Billy Dodds was frustrated with the goals they conceded, saying: ‘We are usually solid and keep a lot of clean sheets. The goals were embarrassing and that gave us too much to do.’