Date	Saturday, 08 August 2015
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:0 Hamilton Academical
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Attendance	3,479
Referee	Andrew Dallas
Comments	Match Report Report by Martin Dowden for the BBC. Ross County 2 Hamilton Academical 0 Striker Craig Curran scored twice as Ross County recovered from the concession of an early penalty to secured victory at home to Hamilton. County goalkeeper Scott Fox fouled Christian Nade but atoned for his error by saving Ali Crawford's spot kick. Curran made the visitors pay as he lashed the ball home from five yards before doubling County's lead with a cool finish from Marcus Fraser's pass. Midfielder Darian Mackinnon threatened for the visitors but failed to score. Having suffered defeat at Celtic last weekend, County were determined to get points on the board but it was Hamilton started brightest. The won an spot kick inside four minutes but Fox produced a superb diving save to his left, with Crawford choosing placement rather than power. The penalty jolted County into action and Curran broke free on the left to earn a corner. Michael McGovern flapped at the set piece, Hamilton failed to clear and Curran pounced to hook home from close range. County grew in confidence after breaking the deadlock while Hamilton enjoyed fewer forays forward. Scott Boyd sent a lovely ball over the top that Lucas Tagliapietra misjudged but a stumble cost Curran the opportunity to sprint clear on goal. Nade was perhaps fortunate to escape punishment when a stray elbow caught Fraser's chest after the striker went down easily looking for a free kick. Referee Andrew Dallas deemed a word of warning sufficient punishment. The scale of threat in the final third perhaps separates these sides. Ross County had Curran and Liam Boyce as a focal point with Michael Gardyne, Rafa De Vita and Jackson Irvine breaking causing a threat. Nade used his strength to hold the ball up but, as the game wore on, he looked increasingly isolated as Hamilton struggled to pressure the hosts. Just before the break Jim McIntyre's side doubled their lead as Hamilton were punished for poor defending. Play switched from left to right and ended with Fraser executing a neat one-two, breaking past a defender and cutting the ball back for Curran to tap home. The tempo dropped significantly after the break with the home side happy to try to pick off Hamilton. They came close when Gardyne delivered a wonderful ball that Irvine volleyed narrowly wide. Mackinnon came close to pulling one back with a 20-yard daisy-cutter that flashed past Fox's right-hand post. Hamilton enjoyed more possession but failed to create clear-cut opportunities and were restricted to long-range efforts. Play switched from left to right and ended with Fraser executing a neat one-two, breaking past a defender and cutting the ball back for Curran to tap home. The tempo dropped significantly after the break with the home side happy to try to pick off Hamilton. They came close when Gardyne delivered a wonderful ball that Irvine volleyed narrowly wide. Mackinnon came close to pulling one back with a 20-yard daisy-cutter that flashed past Fox's right-hand post. Hamilton enjoyed more possession but failed to create clear-cut opportunities and were restricted to long-range efforts. Hamilton boss Martin Canning was frustrated not to build on a bright start, with his team yet to score in two Premiership matches. "Obviously, we didn't score the penalty, I think at 1-0 and the way that we started the game we would have gone on to win the game," he said. "But it's such small margins, we miss the penalty and they go up the park and get a soft goal from our point of view and the game changes on that. "We started the game well and we will always try and get the ball down and pass it. I thought for large spells we dominated and we were excellent at times. "But the turning point is when we miss the penalty and conceding a goal right on half-time gave us a mountain to climb." Accies struggled for goals in the second half of last season and opened this campaign with a 0-0 at home to 10-man Partick Thistle. "When teams sit off you as they can do especially if they are two goals up, it's then up to us to go and break them down and I thought we were a bit one dimensional trying to play through the middle of them," explained Canning. "I think we might have gone wider and put the ball into the box which may have given us a better opportunity and that is something that we can work on." On the prospect of bolstering his squad, he added: "I think we have a bit of scope to bring players in but I don't want to just be bringing players in for the sake of it, I've got to be bringing players in who are better than what we have. "A lot of what we are doing is right, last week we were excellent and today we had spells where we were excellent."
Ross County
Manager	Jim McIntyre
Starting 11	1: Scott Fox, 2: Marcus Fraser, 5: Scott Boyd, 7: Michael Gardyne, 8: Ian McShane, 10: Liam Boyce, 11: Craig Curran 2, 12: Richard Foster, 15: Andrew Davies, 24: Raffaele De Vita, 36: Jackson Irvine
Bench	21: Daniel Bachmann, 4: Rocco Quinn, 6: Christopher Robertson, 9: Brian Graham, 14: Darren Holden, 17: Jonathan Franks, 19: Tony Dingwall
Hamilton Academical
Manager	Martin Canning
Starting 11	Michael McGovern, Ziggy Gordon, Antons Kurakins, Grant Gillespie 1, Douglas Imrie, Christopher Turner, Alister Crawford, Louis Longridge, Jesus Gracia Tena, Christian Nade, Lucas Tagliapietra 1
Bench	Alan Martin, Gramoz Kurtaj, Carlton Morris, Kieran MacDonald, Craig Watson, Darian MacKinnon 1, Greg Docherty