Hamilton remain top of the Scottish Premiership on goal difference despite Dundee ending their nine-game unbeaten run in the league at windswept Dens Park. Two second-half goals helped Paul Hartley’s side become the first team to beat Alex Neil’s league leaders since the opening day of the season when they lost at home to Inverness. David Clarkson’s 69th-minute header was his fourth goal in four matches and four minutes later Greg Stewart made sure of the points with a well-taken goal to clinch a 2-0 win.
The St Johnstone manager, Tommy Wright, was delighted to end his side’s recent wretched run of form with a battling 0-0 draw against Partick Thistle at Firhill. The Perth side came into the match after five straight league defeats but they averted a sixth straight loss. “It’s a good point, particularly in the run that we’ve been on,” he said.
The Ross County manager, Jim McIntyre, claimed it was “crystal clear” that the referee, Don Robertson, made the wrong decision after he disallowed a Michael Gardyne goal in the 2-2 Scottish Premiership draw with St Mirren in Paisley. The visitors were ahead through a Paul Quinn header after 11 minutes when the on-loan Dundee United player met a Jackson Irvine pass and raced through on goal with time and space. It appeared Gardyne had beaten the offside trap as there was no flag or whistle, but both came when he slotted the ball through the legs of the goalkeeper, Marian Kello, and into the net.
From potentially being two goals up, County found themselves level when Adam Drury headed in from close range two minutes from the break. The former St Mirren player Graham Carey restored the Staggies’ lead in the 58th minute with a well-placed drive, but this time County’s lead lasted two minutes before Jeroen Tesselaar equalised with a wonderful shot from the edge of the box.
McIntyre believes the decision stopped them taking all three points back to the Highlands. “It is not marginal - it is crystal clear.”
In the Championship, Rangers won 3-0 at Dumbarton with goals from Kenny Miller, Lee Wallace and Kris Boyd and reduced the deficit on Hearts to six points.
