Motherwell 4 Hamilton 2

Louis Moult underlined his importance to Motherwell by hitting all of their goals in a 4-2 victory over Hamilton. The forward inspired Motherwell to their second Ladbrokes Premiership win in his first league start of the campaign, immediately moving second in the top goalscorer list behind Ross County's Liam Boyce. Despite undergoing groin surgery, Moult has managed to score seven goals in 210 minutes of action in all competitions and he had to make do with an hour of the Lanarkshire derby. Ali Crawford struck twice to keep Accies in the game but, like everyone else, he had to be content with a supporting role to the main man. Moult had already set up Scott McDonald for a half-chance and had a headed goal disallowed before he opened the scoring in the eighth minute. Motherwell were forced all the way back to Craig Samson after a corner but Ryan Bowman headed the goalkeeper's kick into the path of Moult, who kept his composure to slot home. The goalscorer was soon winning the ball back from Massimo Donati deep inside his own half before setting up a counter-attack that saw Bowman sweep a shot wide from Chris Cadden's cross. Moult's second came in the 13th minute. Some sharp passing left Richard Tait with yards of space to cross and Moult had the simple task of heading into an empty net after a misjudgement from Remi Matthews. Crawford missed a good chance when he blazed over from Dougie Imrie's square ball and Moult soon completed a 13-minute hat-trick after Cadden got round the outside of left-back Grant Gillespie and sent in a low cross. McDonald and Bowman both had efforts before the ball broke to the former Wrexham striker to volley home from 15 yards. Accies moved Donati back into a three-man defence with Gillespie moving from left-back into central midfield, and they got a lifeline in the 36th minute. Tait headed a clearance straight to Crawford and the midfielder curled the ball in off the post from 18 yards after a one-two with Gillespie. Accies continued to press. Michael Devlin missed a good headed chance before Crawford hit the post from a free-kick and Georgios Sarris missed the rebound from four yards. Eamonn Brophy forced a save just after the break but Moult, who had switched to left midfield at half-time, was back on target in the 50th minute. Bowman looked set to take the penalty after being tripped in the box by Darren Lyon but was soon given word to hand over to Moult, who sent Matthews the wrong way. Motherwell defender Stephen McManus had a shot cleared off the line before Moult made way, to a standing ovation. Crawford kept the game alive four minutes later when he hit substitute Rakish Bingham's cutback high into the net. Motherwell suddenly started to look shaky and Samson made a triple save before Ben Heneghan cleared Bingham's header off the line. But Brophy headed wide when presented with Hamilton's best chance to really put the pressure on.