Celtic 3 Hamilton Academical 1: Spirited Accies downed as Brendan Rodgers' side extend unbeaten run

Celtic’s mileage stretches on with no sign of interruption. The needle hit 69 successive games unbeaten with goals from Olivier Ntcham, James Forrest and Scott Sinclair against a worthy effort from Hamilton, for whom Daniel Redmond found the mark and Rakish Bingham struck the post.

The Celtic Park ambience on a bitterly cold night reflected season diversions and office parties must have had an impact on the attendance because the usually vibrant stadium had the feel of a half-empty Christmas stocking. Those who made the effort to attend, however, were treated to an opening first 45 minutes replete with four goals, all of them excellent.

Brendan Rodgers made three changes from the 2-2 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road, with Mikael Lustig, Jozo Simunovic and Kieran Tierney all on the bench to make way for Kristoffer Ajer, Nir Bitton and Stuart Armstrong. Also sitting out the start once more were the striker pair of Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele.

The Hamilton manager, Martin Canning, without the luxury of a substantial squad, was forced to make six alterations to the line-up for their weekend defeat by St Johnstone in Perth.

Canning revealed that David Templeton had missed training because of a throat infection, although the midfielder was numbered among the Accies substitutes, but Antiono Rojano had to be ruled out completely because of a back injury. In such circumstances, Celtic generally attempt to throttle opponents as early as possible and this occasion was no exception, with the stats showing them controlling 75% of possession by the 10-minute mark. By that stage, they were already a goal to the good from a delightful combination of Sinclair and Ntcham, the former chipping towards the back of the box for his colleague to strike a rising right-foot volley beyond Gary Woods.

Hamilton might easily have folded but they stuck to a dispiriting task and got unexpected reward for persisting with an unpromising attack that seemed to have run out of steam on the left. The move was revitalised thanks to Darian MacKinnon’s persistence and, when the combative midfielder worked the ball to the edge of the box, Redmond did well to scoop his left-footed strike with precision and power high past Craig Gordon.

As the interval approached, Hamilton could have been pardoned for imagining that they could take the comfort of a draw into the dressing room, but they were to be floored by two goals in as many minutes. The double blow carried additional force because Rakish Bingham had almost burst clear inside the Celtic half, only to be thwarted by a superbly timed interception by Ajer.

The ball was shuttled adeptly through Armstrong to Forrest, who finished with trademark efficiency. Accies made the cardinal error of losing possession  almost straight from therir restart and this time Forrest turned supplier, setting up Sinclair for an accomplished lofted effort into the top corner of the net.

Odsonne Edouard, the teenager on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, had been granted the role of Celtic spearhead and his predatory instincts would have bagged him a couple of goals had it not been for impressive alertness from Woods, who twice plucked the ball from the Frenchman’s toes as he was played clean through the Hamilton back line. Edouard’s stint was done midway through the second half, when he was replaced by Griffiths, who took to the field with high energy.

It was, though, Bingham who came closest when he prodded a shot through Gordon’s legs but was frustrated as the ball bobbled along the goal line and off the far post to safety.  

Match details

Celtic (3-5-2):Gordon; Ajer, Boyata (Simunovic 72), Bitton; Forrest, Ntcham, Brown, Armstrong, McGregor; Edouard (Griffiths 67), Sinclair.
Subs (unused): De Vries (g), Dembele, Hayes, Lustig, Tierney.
Booked: Edouard.
Hamilton Academical (3-5-2): Woods; Gogic, Tomas, McManus; Gillespie (, MacKinnon, Donati, Docherty, Imrie; Redmond, Bingham.
Subs (unused): Fulton (g), Templeton, Lyon, Ferguson, Cunningham, Sarris.
Booked: Gillespie.
Referee: Stephen Finnie.