Hamilton's Ioannis Skondras says five-game ban for excessive misconduct is fair

Hamilton defender Ioannis Skondras says a five-game ban for excessive misconduct is "a fair judgement".

The 27-year-old Greek was charged by the Scottish FA for his part in a melee towards the end of Accies' win over Ross County on 16 December.

He has already served two games of the ban, against Partick Thistle and Motherwell, after being sent off.

Skondras will miss two further matches, with the fifth imposed if he is charged again with excessive misconduct.

Both clubs have been punished for failing to control their players, with Hamilton Academical fined £2500 and Ross County fined £2000.

Speaking outside Hampden Park after his Scottish FA hearing, Skondras said he was pleased that the disciplinary panel was not swayed by media coverage.

"I feel happy that the panel were kind to me," he said. "They did their job; they weren't listening to the media and what people were saying.

"They focused on the actual incident, and judged it on that, not all the speculation."

Skondras was involved in a tussle with Kenny van der Weg and also clashed with two other County players, Chris Routis and Davis Keillor-Dunn, before man-handling the referee, Gavin Duncan, who was making his top-flight debut.

The defender says he "saw red", adding that he has never done anything like that before and never will again. He also apologised to Duncan immediately afterwards.

"I didn't even see it was the referee behind me," he explained. "Straight away I said sorry and he accepted it."

In his post-match interview with BBC Scotland, County boss Owen Coyle claimed Skondras threw a punch, while Accies manager Martin Cannings dismissed the ugly scenes as "just handbags" at the time.

Skondras (right) received his marching orders from referee Gavin Duncan