Date	Saturday, 08 April 2017
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Hamilton Academical 1:1 Ross County
Venue	New Douglas Park
Attendance	1,548
Referee	Steven McLean
Comments	Match Report Report by Kenny Crawford for the BBC. Hamilton Academical 1 Ross County 1 Ten-man Hamilton surrendered an early lead at home to Ross County but held on for a point which nudges them out of the relegation play-off place. Massimo Donati shot Accies in front, while a strike from Alex D'Acol was well saved by County's Scott Fox. The home side had Giannis Skondras dismissed on half time for a foul on the counter-attacking Ryan Dow. Michael Gardyne, Dow and Martin Woods went close for the visitors before Craig Curran bundled in the leveller. The point is enough to lift Hamilton above local rivals Motherwell into 10th spot on goal difference, while County remain eighth. Donati came back into Hamilton's starting eleven as a replacement for the suspended Darian MacKinnon, and it only took three minutes for the Italian to once again show his worth to Accies. The 36-year-old is well known for his two-year spell at Celtic but his pedigree is backed up further by looking at the list of teams he's played for in his homeland - AC Milan, Parma, Torino and Sampdoria all feature. That schooling was evident in the way he turned the relatively harmless lay-off from Skondras into a guided, curling shot that found its destination in the top left corner from 20 yards. Accies had already had an D'Acol poked effort cleared off the line and the same player then drew a fine save from Scott with a thumping shot from the edge of the penalty area. The hosts were not flawless though and there were a couple of occasions in the first half when Jim McIntyre's men felt they should have levelled. Tim Chow lifted over from close-range and Gardyne watched his rifled shot go narrowly wide of the post. Seconds before the interval the visitors were handed a boost when Skondras received a straight red card from referee Steven McLean for a lunging foul on Dow, who was charging at pace into the opposition half. While it looked a clear free-kick, most inside New Douglas Park were expecting a yellow card at most flashed in the direction of the Greek, so when the red was shown there was uproar from the home fans. It is the second match in the space of four days that Accies have had a man dismissed. MacKinnon walked on Wednesday for making a gesture to fans that boss Martin Canning could have no argument about, but he looked very aggrieved at this decision. Dow had already cracked the crossbar with a wonderful effort before Accies' attacking threat of Ali Crawford and Rakish Bingham were sacrificed for the more defensive Blair Adams and Alex Gogic. The latter had hardly been on the pitch when County's corner was not cleared and Curran dispatched his seventh goal of the season in at the near post from eight yards. It wasn't pretty but it was very important for the visitors. Despite the numerical advantage, Ross County failed to fashion a way to take all three points - Woods' free-kick coming closest but Remi Matthews stuck out an impressive hand to push that effort over. Accies might even have snatched it if Gogic had been more composed at the end of a stoppage-time counter-attack. The Cypriot received the ball from Dougie Imrie but fired over when well placed just inside the box. Hamilton holding on backs up once more how reliable their home form has been recently. Accies have not lost at New Douglas Park since Christmas Eve and seven games at home have come and gone since then. They will wonder, though, what might have been if they had kept all 11 players on the field. Manager Martin Canning says Hamilton Accies will appeal against the red card issued to Giannis Skondras in the 1-1 draw with Ross County. The Greek left-back was dismissed before half-time for a foul on Ryan Dow just inside his own half. "I've just seen it back and it isn't a red card," Canning told BBC Scotland. "Giannis has gone for the ball along the ground and I think it looks worse than it is because of the speed they are both going at." Canning felt there was "absolutely no intent" from his player to hurt Dow. "It's just unfortunate for Skondras that Ryan is quick and he's just got a wee toe on it before Giannis can get there. "Referees have got a hard job with things happening at that speed, but we seem to be on the wrong end of a few decisions. "I spoke to the referee and he was quite convinced it was [a sending off]. I hate being critical of them because it is a difficult job, but what I can't keep on doing is standing here after we've had decisions go against us that costs us, and keep on defending them [referees], because we need to start getting them right for us. "Ultimately, there's a lot at stake here. It's potentially cost us two points and it could have cost us more." Ross County manager Jim McIntyre had sympathy with his Hamilton counterpart over the decision. "It's not a sending off and they've been very unfortunate with that," he told BBC Scotland. "I think in terms of our overall play, I'm disappointed we've not picked up three points but Accies deserve a lot of credit as well. "We've been down to 10 men three or four times this season and we've won two of those games. It's really difficult against 10 men because they sit in. Sometimes you can get lured into committing too many players and then get hit on the counter-attack."
Ross County
Manager	Jim McIntyre
Starting 11	1: Scott Fox, 2: Marcus Fraser, 3: Jason Naismith, 7: Michael Gardyne, 8: Martin Woods, 9: Ryan Dow, 10: Liam Boyce, 11: Craig Curran 1, 12: Timothy Chow, 15: Andrew Davies, 28: Kenny Van der Weg
Bench	31: Aaron McCarey, 4: Christopher Routis, 19: Oscar Gobern, 23: Alex Schalk, 27: Milan Lalkovic, 52: Reghan Tumilty, 63: Dylan Dykes
Hamilton Academical
Manager	Martin Canning
Starting 11	Remi Matthews, Giannis Skondras 1, Michael Devlin 1, Scott McMann 1, Georgios Sarris, Dougie Imrie, Greg Docherty, Alister Crawford, Rakish Bingham 1, Massimo Donati 1, Alejandro D'Acol
Bench	Daniel Redmond, Alexander Gogic, Craig Watson, Eamonn Brophy, Steven Boyd, Gary Woods, Blair Adams