Hamilton Accies 1-3 Motherwell: Steelmen take Lanarkshire derby honours

Liam Polworth launches a first half effort on goal for Motherwell at Hamilton (Pic by Ian McFadyen)

Motherwell made two changes for the match, with Peter Hartley and Chris Long in for Richard Tait and Jermaine Hylton. And the visitors had the first scoring chance on five minutes when Sherwin Seedorf burst through the middle and had a low shot blocked by Accies keeper Owain Fon Williams.

A second chance for the Steelmen then arrived on eight minutes when good interplay between Liam Grimshaw and Allan Campbell set up Liam Polworth who shot well wide.

The away team came closer still on 15 minutes when Polworth's corner from the left was met powerfully by Peter Hartley whose header hit the bar.

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson witnessed a pulsating encounter at the Fountain of Youth Stadium on Saturday

But the opener was delayed just 60 seconds as another Polworth corner from the other side was met by the head of Hartley and this time the ball nestled in the bottom left hand corner of the Accies net.

A key moment in the game arrived on 20 minutes when Hamilton defender Jamie Hamilton was striaght red carded for handling James Scott's headed attempt on the goal line at the expense of a penalty. Liam Donnelly stepped up to blast home his seventh goal of the season from the spot.

But Accies were back in it within three minutes in controversial fashion when Ross Cunningham blasted home from a penalty at the other end after handball by Peter Hartley. The award looked soft in the extreme.

When the half-time whistle was blown by referee Andrew Dallas with the score at 2-1 for Motherwell, the feeling among the healthy away support must surely have been that their favourites should have been further ahead such was their overall dominance.

Motherwell went 3-1 up in stunning fashion on 53 minutes when Chris Long advanced impressively before sending a brilliant 20-yard angled shot into the far left corner.

After good build-up involving Long and Hylton, Polworth sent a long ranger well wide on 73 minutes.

The impressive Long produced another fine slaloming run on 88 minutes and his final left footed shot was deflected wide off Sam Stubbs.

Motherwell: Gillespie, Grimshaw, Hartley, Campbell, Long, Seedorf (Hylton 58), Scott (Cole 65), Dunne, Polworth (Maguire 89), Donnelly, Gallagher.

Referee: Andrew Dallas

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