Ross County have character to ease past Accies

ROSS County midfielder Michael Gardyne was delighted with his side’s professional display against Hamilton. A first-half double from Craig Curran put County on course for their first three points of the season with a 2-0 victory. However, the home side survived an early scare when Accies were awarded a penalty for a foul on Christian Nade by Scott Fox, but Ali Crawford’s spot-kick was brilliantly saved by the County keeper.

Michael Gardyne: Professional display. Picture: SNS

Gardyne, who signed a two-year contract with the Dingwall club after being on loan from Dundee United the previous term, was happy with the way County went about their business.

He said: “It wasn’t a great start, giving away the penalty, the same as last week. But Scott Fox has made a great save and we showed great character to go on and win the game.”

“The first-half performance still wasn’t anywhere near our best. But to win a game when you are not at your best can only be a good thing.

“I think the second half was more of a professional performance, the manager brought in an extra mid-fielder and I don’t think we were in any real danger. They had a few efforts from far out and the edge of the box but I don’t think they had any real chances.”

On the other hand, County took theirs when they came along.

Gardyne said: “We had two or three chances and scored two of them. It is all about being clinical at this level and we’ve done that today.”

County had to wait until the end of September last season for their first league win, so Gardyne was delighted to get points on the board early.

“To get a win so early this season is massive,” he said.

Looking ahead to the midweek match against St Johnstone, he added: “It is obviously a hard game, a hard venue to go to. You know what you are getting with St Johnstone so we are looking forward to Tuesday and hopefully we can get another win.”

Accies goalkeeper Michael McGovern felt the turning point came early on when his side were on top.

He said: “The big moments didn’t go our way, that was the story of the game today. I thought we started really well and then missed a penalty, that was a big turning point for us. But these things can happen and wee Ali [Crawford] has been magnificent. It was a good penalty and a good save. Then we conceded two goals after that.

“In the second half County were happy to sit in. We had a lot of possession but didn’t create too much.”