Ross County 1 Hamilton Accies 1
HAD Ali Crawford donned a Dick Turpin mask and cried "stand and deliver" as he arched a wonderful free-kick into the Ross County net, the scene would have made as much sense as the eventual scoreline.
When it came to the crunch, Crawford stood and delivered – and in quite some style. His was a moment of sublime excellence from 25 yard out, the sweetest of dead-ball strikes.
The Highlanders, though bewildered by the outcome, knew where the blame lay: in their own repeated failure to take the abundance of chances that fell their way. Liam Boyce, the Northern Ireland international, was quick to admit as much.
While he netted his eighth goal of the season with a thumping first half header, the 25-year-old from Belfast wasn’t exempt from blame and missed a couple of the five or six glorious chances created. The rest were uncharacteristically squandered by Dutch striker Alex Schalk.
Schalk deserved credit for energetically foraging his way into good positions, but missed four excellent opportunities. The one he did stick in the net was erroneously ruled off-side.
It was that kind of day for the hosts in Dingwall, but Boyce insists the recovery signs remain positive.
“It was hard to take but I thought we defended really well and created some fantastic chances from open play,” he said. “It is a real positive to see us do that again. A couple of games ago we couldn't buy a goal, but we scored four last week and we could have had four today.
“We just need to keep doing that and the results will come for us. There have been times we’ve been wondering where a goal was going to come from but we had plenty today.
"It just wouldn’t go in for us. We needed that second goal to settle everyone down, but when it doesn’t come there is always a risk the opposition can hit back.
“Unfortunately we couldn't hang on, but I think we're on the right path.”
Chris Burke – hugely-influential in the previous weekend’s morale-boosting Perth victory – missed out with a kidney complaint while, for Accies, benched Dougie Imrie had to wait until the second half to make his 400th senior appearance.
From the first moments of the match, County held the upper hand and nearly all of the attacking menace.
Chances mounted from the opening minute but the best of the early bunch, after 14 minutes, saw Boyce go close with a header from Kenny van der Weg’s swirling delivery.
Six minutes before the break, County pressure finally told. Craig Curran slipped a pass inside to Michael Gardyne to the left of the Accies penalty area.
The County winger’s cross was perfectly-flighted to find Boyce free to score with a strong header from the back of the six-yard box.
Curran exited injured at the break, with Schalk keen to grasp his chance from the bench. How the hosts could have done with the Dutchman bringing along his shooting boots.
On three occasions Schalk, with great alertness, sped behind Hamilton’s defences and three times he shot narrowly wide. Late in the match, Schalk would again be denied, this time by the legs of the excellent Accies keeper Gary Woods.
Accies manager Martin Canning brought on Imrie on the hour mark with the home team’s attempts on goal count growing, along with the fans’ edginess.
They were right to be nervous: Accies were level after 77 minutes. Boyce gave away a silly free-kick 25 yards out and it was meat and drink to Ali Crawford who expertly swirled a wonderful strike past helpless Fox.
Crawford, who had also scored a fine free-kick against Hearts in Monday night’s 3-3 draw, owned up to relief. He also hailed the spirit of resilience within his camp.
“Recently we've been disappointed with draws but today was a decent result because, in the first half, we weren't at the races. They deserved to be in front,” he said. “The second half was a wee bit better and, thankfully, I popped up with an equaliser.
"I also scored one with a free kick during the week and it has given me a wee bit more confidence. Stepping up, I believed I was going to score.
"We've got a good team spirit and we'll fight to the death. We showed that again today.”
ROSS COUNTY: Fox 6; Fraser 6, Davies 7, McEveley 7, Van Der Weg 6; Gardyne 7 (Dingwall 81, 3), Chow 6, Routis 6, Dow 6 (Franks 72, 4); Boyce 7; Curran 5 (Schalk 46, 5). Subs: McCarey, Morrison, Cikos, McShane.
Booked: Routis 90
HAMILTON ACCIES: Woods 8; Sarris 6, Devlin 7, Seaborne 5 (Imrie 60, 4); Gillespie 7, MacKinnon 6, Donati 5 (Docherty 56, 4), Crawford 7, Sowah 6; Kurtaj 6 (D’Acol 64, 5), Bingham 6. Subs: Thomson, Longridge, Brophy, Lyon.
Booked: Seaborne 5,
Referee: Craig Thomson 6
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