Deadly Dembele at the double as Celts see off Hamilton
ANOTHER three points, another two goals for Moussa Dembele and another game closer to a couple of remarkable records.
Yet if much of this victory felt a bit like painting-by-numbers in terms of the predictability of its outcome, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers insisted he was delighted by what he had witnessed.
“It’s almost 20 years to the day since I first qualified as a coach and over hundreds of games what I’ve learned is the greatest principle is denying the opponent space,” he said.
“And the way my players counter-pressed the game today, didn’t allow Hamilton’s technical players to make any sequence of passes deserves real credit in terms of how hard they are working.
“They are so many points ahead and they still show that desire and hunger to close the space. That is so pleasing.”
With Hamilton packing men behind the ball, the first half was low on incident.
Celtic suffered an early injury blow when James Forrest limped off with a knee injury after a too-short pass from Cristian Gamboa saw him come out second best in a challenge with Danny Redmond.
It was a sore one and the Hoops will wait anxiously to see how he is over the next couple of days.
Stuart Armstrong, too, had an astonishing miss when Kieran Tierney’s low ball in left him with an open goal to aim at and he shanked his shot up on to the crossbar.
Otherwise, there was little for fans to text home about in the opening 45.
Until that is, the final minute and the dramatic intervention from Dembele.
The French star displayed lovely skill to pick his way past Massimo Donati, who for one painful moment was left floundering.
His reward was a little bit of time and space and he made full use of both, looking up before curling a tremendous right foot shot beyond Accies keeper Garry Woods and into the far top corner of the net.
It was his 28th goal of the season and before long he was celebrating number 29.
This time he owed a serious debt of thanks to Kieran Tierney, the full back earning Celtic a penalty with a clever dart into the box.
Donati halted his run by sticking a leg across and referee Crawford Allan pointed straight to the spot.
It left Dembele with a straightforward chance to score and he made no mistake, confidently steering his shot away from the dive of Woods.
His hopes of netting a third February hat- trick were quashed when Rodgers substituted him to give Leigh Griffiths the boost of a 20 minute run-out.
The Frenchman trudged his way slowly off the pitch, but then to be fair he had himself to blame having tried and failed with two outrageous attempts to score.
“I thought Moussa looked alright, he was milking the applause, he was enjoying it,” said the Hoops boss.
“He’s a striker, he wanted the hattrick and what not. But, like I’ve said before, there is no individual bigger than the team and I always like to make sure, when I can, to think about the team.
“The boy oozes quality; he absolutely oozes quality and, for a 20- year- old, to see the improvements he’s making is just fantastic.”
Griffiths – very much last season’s hero with 40 goals but who this season has been told he needs to improve his off- field standards – tried hard in what was his second appearance of 2017 and did well with a clever flick to put Armstrong through.
Accies for their part were denied a late consolation when Craig Gordon pushed Eamonn Brophy’s header over.
They also, manager Mar tin Canning argued, should have had a penalty kick of their own for Scott Brown’s contact on substitute Gramoz Kurtaj which saw the Accies player booked for diving.
Bottom of the Premiership table, they have a hard road ahead, especially in the short- term with Aberdeen, Hearts and Rangers all to be faced.
For Celtic, though, the numbers continue to stack up.
Twenty- four points clear of Aberdeen, winners in their last 21 league fixtures – four short of Martin O’Neill’s side’s UK record of 25 – and undefeated in 32 across all domestic competitions, they are going to take some stopping.