Hamilton 3 '“ 0: Caley Thistle cast adrift as Accies win at last

Rakish Bingham completes Caley Thistles misery by scoring Hamiltons third goal. Picture: SNS.

Hamilton had come into this meeting without a win in their previous dozen fixtures while their rivals had not prevailed in their last 11.

It was the manner of this  latest defeat which will surely concern the directors of the 2015 Scottish Cup winners most.

It was bad enough that they failed to lay a glove on opponents who had won only three of their last 26 Premiership games at home but the fact is they were fortunate not to have conceded more goals than they did.

As it is, this was the biggest win for Martin Canning’s men since they thrashed Dundee United 4-0 here 18 months ago. United were eventually relegated and few would bet against Inverness, three points adrift at the bottom, avoiding demotion.

Accies started with striker Billy Mckay, signed on loan from Wigan yesterday afternoon, and the Irishman had an early opportunity to break the deadlock when Greg Tansey’s quickly-taken free-kick released him in the eighth minute.

The Northern Ireland striker, who harvested 62 goals from 130 starts for the Highlanders before relocating to Lancashire in 2015, saw the whites of Gary White’s eyes but sent his shot in to the side netting.

Hamilton took the lead just two minutes later with a goal which explained why the visitors have the most porous defence in the Premiership.

Ali Crawford’s inswinging corner was sweetly struck but Alex D’Acol was allowed to run unchallenged and meet his delivery with a free header from point-blank range.

Inverness spurned a golden opportunity to draw level when they were awarded a penalty after Michael Devlin barged Carl Tremarco off the ball as he attempted to make contact with Greg Tansey’s corner.

Tansey drove his attempted conversion to the goalkeeper’s right but Woods guessed correctly and pushed the ball to safety.

Inverness’s overly physical approach was winning few friends among the home support and Crawford was replaced in the 33rd minute as the result of a reckless challenge by Iain Vigurs, who was cautioned for the offence.

Accies doubled their advantage immediately after the restart when Rakish Bingham outpaced David Raven on the left flank and his low cutback was intended was for D’Acol but the striker, under pressure from Gary Warren, went crashing to the turf.

The ball ran on for Grant Gillespie, who mishit his shot from 15 yards but Owain Fon Williams somehow contrived to fumble it over the line.

Inverness were wretched and Hamilton soon added a third. Bingham outmuscled Brad McKay as both players sought to seize on Darian  MacKinnon’s hopeful punt and the striker raced on to smash the ball into the postage-stamp corner from  22 yards.

Manager Richie Foran cut a dejected figure on the touchline and his position must be precarious as a consequence of this latest, and greatest,  disappointment.