JOSH PUTS WIND UP HAMILTON

(1) O’Donnell 34

(0) Murray 84, 90 Att: 4,267

(0) Lafferty 53 Att: 4,936

(0) (4) Murphy 10 Windass 19, 34, 72 Morelos 27 JOSH WINDASS smashed a hat-trick as Rangers won an eight-goal thriller at Hamilton.

But their Old Firm rivals Celtic had to settle for a point as they finished goalless at home to St Johnstone.

Celtic ended the day just nine points clear of the Gers. Two weeks ago, the gap was 14 points.

Windass’ treble was the highlight of Rangers’ 5-3 victory, which saw six goals scored in a crazy first half.

Darren Lyon slid the home side ahead after five minutes but Alfredo Morelos set up Jamie Murphy for an equaliser before a howler from Accies keeper Gary Woods allowed Windass (above) to score.

David Templeton levelled before Murphy returned the favour for Morelos to restore Rangers’ lead.

Windass (above) made it 4-2 after 34 minutes, slotting home another Murphy flick, and completed his hat-trick in the 72nd minute when he took advantage of slack defending by Hamilton.

The scoring was rounded off two minutes from time by a Dougie Imrie penalty.

Accies manager Martin Canning admitted his tactics had contributed to the slugfest. Canning said: “If you score three at home you’d expect to take something from the game.

“We wanted to press high and force Rangers into mistakes. It worked, but we left ourselves open.”

Meanwhile, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers’ decision to make eight changes to the side which beat Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League on Thursday led to a lacklustre display.

Afterwards, he tried to shift the focus on to St Johnstone counterpart Tommy Wright, saying: “Tommy will be wondering how they haven’t won since December if they can come here and play like that.”