Hamilton Academical 3-0 St Mirren: Canning's men blitz blunt Buddies

Two goals in a devastating four minutes helped secure an emphatic win for Hamilton Academical over St Mirren.

Fredrik Brustad's strike and a Mickel Miller penalty put the home side well in control with Miller adding a second midway through the second half.

Confusion reigned at the Hope Stadium as a false fire alarm delayed kick off by 10 minutes.

When the game did eventually start Hamilton always looked the more likely to take the win to move up to ninth.

A large travelling support from Paisley saw a Cammy MacPherson free-kick whistle just by the post with the game sitting at 0-0.

However, there wasn't much else to get excited about as St Mirren suffered their fourth defeat of the Premiership season.

'The damage might have been worse for St Mirren'

Even at this early stage of the season, this victory has an important feel to it. Accies have defied predictions for years, beating the drop while supposedly bigger clubs go down.

Martin Canning will expect to be part of a dogfight again this season, with St Mirren also potentially involved, so taking all three points from this match was a timely boost.

Their first priority was ensuring Saints knew they were in a game - the opening exchanges were peppered with meaty challenges - but as the first half wore on, Accies began to show some class.

Miller and Steven Boyd were central to that, combining in midfield initially for Miller to flash a shot wide.

If that served as a warning, it wasn't heeded by St Mirren, who were sliced open by Miller's pass for Boyd and though his shot was saved by Craig Samson, Brustad was well placed to tap in the rebound.

Suddenly, Accies found a new flush of confidence and when Dougie Imrie was brought down by Jordan Kirkpatrick, Miller's penalty was struck powerfully enough to find its way past the unlucky Samson's glove.

St Mirren were emphatically second-best by this stage, offering nothing at the other end, and fell further behind when the impressive Miller powered forward before driving a shot that came off both posts before sneaking over the line.

The damage might have been worse for the visitors, but Boyd was unfortunate to see an effort come back off the bar.

'Stubbs malaise has not entirely lifted'

Much of St Mirren's excellent work in Oran Kearney's opening match against Celtic was undone here, with a limp performance yielding no shots on goal of note.

It is clear the malaise that set in under Alan Stubbs has not entirely lifted and Kearney will perhaps have learned more about his players and the job facing him in this 90 minutes than he did in that draw with Celtic.

Losing Jack Baird from the starting line-up just before kick off was not ideal for the St Mirren manager, but that does not explain the bluntness of the visitors' attack.

Matt Kilgallon marshalled the Accies defence well - a switch to a four-man defence seemed to suit them - and neither Danny Mullen nor Cammy Smith got a sniff of goal.

It allows Martin Canning's side to go into next weekend's meeting with Dundee in a more relaxed frame of mind, with a six-point buffer between the teams.

Canning said before this match he was still searching for his best starting XI. He may have found it now.

'Plain to see we have plenty of work to do' - reaction

Hamilton Accies manager Martin Canning on BBC Radio Scotland: "The boys were excellent.

"We've got good players in there. We are probably still searching to see what our best combination is, they are all good players."

On next weekend's match with Dundee, he said: "If you go in more relaxed you lose the battle first.

"You've got to go in there with the intensity to win the battle to allow you to go and play football. I've said that to the boys all week."

St Mirren manager Oran Kearney said: "It's two ends of the spectrum in relation to last week.

"Coming off last week's game we had a fair idea how tough it was going to be this year and it was plain to see today how much work we have to do in the next few weeks to make us really competitive at this level.

"When the two goals went in quick fashion the writing looked on the wall which was disappointing.

"I'm in football long enough to have a good understanding [that there are no easy games at this level].

"They were sharp today, particularly when they went ahead they managed the game well. That's what we've got to aspire to."