HAMILTON top the league, but Dundee are still having a laugh at their expense.

Not content with pipping yesterday's opponents on a frenzied last day of the championship season, the Dens Park side won two and drew two of the meetings between these teams.

Paul Hartley's side continued to hold the whip hand against their Lanarkshire rivals yesterday as they racked up their first home win of the season. Accies had the consolation of remaining top and breaking the club's all-time record for minutes without conceding a goal but this was a sore way to abandon that proud 11-match unbeaten run.

While the example of Hamilton and the best start of any promoted team to the Scottish top tier in history preaches the merits of continuity, Dundee boss Paul Hartley rang the changes this summer.

It is a process which continued last night with the recruitment of back-up goalkeeper Arvind Schenk, a 25-year-old from Germany, and it was telling that the goals should both come from summer arrivals, David Clarkson and Greg Stewart, who are forging a burgeoning striking partnership.

"It wasn't a great game but I think we did to Hamilton what they do to a lot of teams," said Hartley. "We worked really hard and pressed the ball. I think that is four goals in four starts that Clarky has got and Greg is getting better game by game.

"We've had a massive turnaround in players. We had to build a complete new squad of 15 players and people forget about that. We've had a good points tally for the first quarter and if we can keep getting 16 points every quarter we'll be okay."

Dundee were full of it by the end, but Hamilton's confidence, bolstered by back-to-back wins against Celtic and Aberdeen, was apparent early on.

Mickael Antoine-Curier, back on one of his many old stomping grounds, had latched onto a Tony Andreu pass to force a save from Scott Bain within just three minutes, and before long Andreu himself was spurning an opportunity after Ali Crawford's through-ball.

The blustery wind was making set pieces impossible to defend, but it was equally hard to attack. Accies' young central defender Michael Devlin should have opened his team's account when lurking at the back post from a swirling Crawford delivery, then could only head over from a deep Danny Redmond corner.

A Dougie Imrie drive was beaten out by Bain but the best chance arrived, out of the blue, at the other end. Clarkson got his feet in a mess when he knew that a simple pull-back would give Gary Harkins a tap-in.

Dundee appeared relieved to get in at half-time with the scoreline still blank, but then the game turned. Although Antoine-Curier tested Bain with a low free-kick, in truth the home side were starting to deal with attacks with a measure of comfort.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a set piece that broke the deadlock. Harkins hadn't been overly involved up to this point but his corner was perfect for Clarkson, who guided the ball high into the net. It was the first goal Michael McGovern had conceded in 473 minutes of play in all competitions, comfortably beating Tomas Cerny's record.

We only had to wait five minutes more for the next. Harkins got up well to win a header, and soon Stewart was steering in a low left-foot finish.

The only blemish on his day came when the former Cowdenbeath striker acquired a needless booking for holding a finger up to his lips in front of the visiting support.

"I don't think we deserved to lose the game," said Hamilton boss Alex Neil afterwards. "I would be more concerned if they dominated the game and outplayed us.

"We have won games this season playing on a par with how we did today but when you create three or four really good chances ultimately you have to take them.

"We are not too disheartened at all - I am not going to be too hard on the boys. To have that record in the SPL with a young team and a new goalkeeper is fantastic."