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Curran celebrates his equaliser for County

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.

Class is permanent

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.

Red card turning point

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.

kondras was sent off on 45 minutes

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.

Home comfort for Hamilton

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.