Hamilton Academical 3-0 St Mirren

Hamilton took their first three points from the Betfred Cup with a comfortable 3-0 win over St Mirren at the Superseal Stadium.Ali Crawford opened the scoring in the first half and Dougie Imrie doubled their lead after the break with Massimo Donati bagging a debut goal to seal the points.Hamilton started brightly and troubled the Saints defence early on, with Imrie testing goalkeeper Jamie Langfield with a low shot in four minutes.David Clarkson saw a scissor-kick attempt saved by Remi Matthews a minute later, but Accies threatened again when a Crawford corner was headed over the crossbar by Alex D'Acol.It was no surprise, then, when Hamilton took the lead after 13 minutes. A superb sweeping move saw Imrie send Grant Gillespie down the right and his cutback was rammed into the net by Crawford from close range.Accies nearly doubled their lead three minutes later when Imrie's corner from the right was headed across goal by Darian MacKinnon but Michael Devlin's header was well saved at the top-right corner.St Mirren came back into the game and in the 24th minute Clarkson's shot on the turn was well-held by Matthews and the former Motherwell striker glanced a header just past the right-hand upright two minutes later.Saints' last chance of the half came after 31 minutes when Stephen Mallan lined up a free-kick 22 yards out on the left, but Matthews made the save look easy.Langfield kept his side in the game on the stroke of half-time when a deflection sent D'Acol through on the right but his low shot was blocked by the out-rushing keeper.Hamilton sealed their win in the 52nd minute when a shot deflected to the right side of the box and Imrie was fastest to react, smashing the ball past a helpless Langfield from 16 yards.Accies could have added to their lead as Crawford had two efforts blocked, but Kyle Hutton had one cleared off the line at the other end.However, the win was put beyond doubt after 70 minutes when Donati slammed a low shot into the bottom corner.ends