Douglas Imrie struck an early brace as 10-man Hamilton saw off bottom-of-the-table Queen of the South.
Imrie opened the scoring after five minutes, converting from inside the penalty area after James McAlister's effort cannoned off the crossbar.
The midfielder doubled Hamilton's advantage 10 minutes later against a static Queens defence with a left-footed strike that nestled into the bottom corner from 20 yards.
Imrie almost completed his hat-trick inside the first half hour, but shot wide from 12 yards, while Stephen McKenna had two long-range efforts for the hosts, testing Scott Christie before firing wide.
Queens wasted an opportunity to half the deficit from the penalty spot after 70 minutes. Mark McLaughlin was cautioned for dissent then given a second yellow for squaring up to Chris Higgins.
From the resulting spot-kick, Scott McLaughlin was denied by Christie.
The home side did set-up a nervy last eight minutes, though, when Ryan McGuffie headed in from close range, but it wasn't enough as Hamilton held on.