At the risk of sounding hopelessly romantic, Eddie Malone believes home truly is where the heart lies as far as the Dundee dressing-room is concerned.

The defender, who is on loan from St Mirren, has been pleasantly surprised to find just how many of Dundee's players hail from Tayside and are, in fact, also supporters of the club instead of just employees.

In the wake of their victory over first division pacesetters Hamilton, which saw Scott Robertson score the only goal after 12 minutes, Malone is sure that having the backbone of the team - which includes Robertson, Paul Dixon, Kevin McDonald and Gavin Swankie - all born and based in the City of Discovery gives Dundee an advantage the other teams would yearn for.

"There are a lot of Dundee supporters in the dressing-room," said the defender on Saturday. "There's a nucleus of local lads and some of them are Dundee daft so that helps because there's great hunger to achieve something there. Having a group of local boys desperate to do well for the team they support is a fantastic advantage to have.

"At loads of clubs there are foreign boys and players just there to pick up wages, but that's definitely not the case here. I've never been in a team which has so many local-based players before. It's good for the spirit and very refreshing."

Hamilton, the league leaders, can justifiably feel aggrieved to have left Tayside by the end of the afternoon with nothing, after they dominated possession for long spells and played some very attractive football.

Richard Offiong, their top scorer, should have ensured they got at least a point when referee Brian Winter - who also sent Alex Rae, Dundee's player-manager to the stand - penalised Gary McKenzie for a handball in the penalty area. However, the striker's effort from 12 yards was utterly woeful and flew high and wide of the target.

Dundee, eager to cut Accies' lead at the top to only three points, demonstrated the spirit Malone mentioned by defending resolutely against waves of attack until the very end.