JEEPERS KEEPERS

Accies goalie Fulton makes two costly errors to present Celtic with victory on Rodgers’ birthday

THIS was the occasion of Brendan Rodgers’ 46th birthday and the Hamilton goalkeeper arrived bearing gifts.

Ryan Fulton was always liable to be busy as Martin Canning’s beleaguered team battened down the hatches for an afternoon of sustained pressure and, to be fair, he pulled off a number of decent saves.

All that good work was undone by two horrible moments in which he allowed Callum McGregor’s shot to slip through his grasp and then spilled a cross for Ryan Christie to double Celtic’s advantage.

On a day when the hosts were not at their incisive best, the two breaks were most welcome and helped extend their lead at the top of the table to three points.

Beat St Johnstone in midweek and the gap will extend to six. Little wonder Rodgers felt so magnanimous towards the 22-year-old Fulton, whom he had previously managed at Liverpool.

‘Young Ryan was unfortunate,’ said the Celtic boss. ‘He might get a bit of stick for the second one but the first was difficult, coming through so many bodies and seeing it late.

‘He was an outstanding young goalkeeper, he was highly rated there (at Liverpool) but needed to get out and play.

‘He makes saves, he kicks the ball a mile and he was maybe even unlucky with the second too as the pitch is a wee bit bobbly.’

Rodgers had freshened his team up for the day, notably by resting Oliver Burke, who had scored two goals against St Mirren in midweek. If the Parkhead boss feared the 21-year-old might ‘break’ after three games in a week, there were no such concerns over Timothy Weah, who has enjoyed an explosive start to his Celtic career.

The on-loan Paris SaintGermain forward scored in his first two substitute appearances and took Burke’s place from the start, with Mikey Johnston also in for James Forrest on the right wing.

It was from the other flank that the first real menace emerged. Scott Sinclair has cut a rejuvenated figure over the past few matches and his mazy dribble in off the left was a product of his surging confidence.

The end product was by no means bad either but Fulton, who had already pushed McGregor’s bouncing drive over the bar, showed sharp reflexes to turn the ball onto the crossbar and over.

Several times over, Fulton kept his team in it — Emilio Izaguirre, Johnston and Weah all tried before the tamest effort of them all crept in.

McGregor didn’t even seem convinced that he should take on the shot when he received the ball 22 yards out but, after a quick shift onto his left side, he elected to have a go.

Fulton may well have been unsighted as the low shot travelled through a ruck of defenders but the ball squirmed through fingers then legs and crept over the line in the most embarrassing fashion. There was a warning for Celtic on the stroke of half-time as Tony Andreu stabbed a shot wide and yet another when Kris Ajer produced a stunning slide challenge to deny Steven Boyd as he bore down on Scott Bain. The Norwegian pumped his fist as if he had just scored a goal. Weah was finding that it’s one thing to come on and round off the scoring against a tight defence and quite another to lead the line against a clogged rearguard from the start. By the time he made way for Burke just after the hour mark, he had enjoyed just one sight of goal, Fulton’s save coming after the teenager pounced on a short back pass.

Burke relished the opportunity of pouring everything into his half-hour cameo. He ought to have had a goal when Fulton badly misjudged Mikael Lustig’s long ball forward, allowing him to gallop in behind and chase down the chance.

Unfortunately, fellow sub Forrest had his mind on the same outcome and got in the way of his sometime Scotland team-mate.

Fulton did much better to divert Burke’s next effort over the bar with one hand but gift-wrapped the moment in which Celtic moved into a two-goal lead.

This time it was a speculative cross from Lustig that had the keeper all a flutter and Christie was there to knock home the rebound.

Rodgers remains in the hunt for a new right-back but Lustig was offering value from the flank and contributed another assist by standing up a right-wing cross which Sinclair nodded in at the back post.