| Match Pictures | Matches: 2008 – 2009 | 2008-2009 Pictures |
Trivia
- Boruc saved penalty and rebound.
- First game v Hamilton for donkey's years.
- Barry Robson pushed to left-back for the match.
- Skippy after scoring his goal (a beezer of a goal) in his celebration patted his stomach as a comical reference to the jokes made about his weight over the summer (he's lost much of the excess now thankfully). Nice comical moment, wish some more people would take the joke though!
- Celtic went top of the league on goal difference as Rangers lost 1-0 to St Mirren the next day (Sunday).
Review
Men against boys, and we were the comfortable winners in a very one-sided game. Didn't help that JVoH was taken off after only a minute or so with an injury after a silly tackle by a Hamilton player, but didn't affect us and once we got the first goal under the belt by Naka, the rest fell into place. Some great play with a fabulous goal by Skippy, but also the skill by Maloney to create the McGeady goal was special.
In many ways we should have won by more, but Hamilton did have a couple of chances. Notably, they were awarded a penalty (that shouldn't have been) after a supposed foul in the box (it wasn't at all) but Boruc saved the penalty AND the rebound with a great reflex save.
Great stuff for us.
Teams
Celtic:-
Boruc,
Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Robson,
Nakamura, Scott Brown (O'Dea 81), Crosas, McGeady,
Vennegoor of Hesselink (Samaras 3, Maloney 77), McDonald, .
Subs Not Used:- Mark Brown, Donati, Hartley, Caddis.
Booked:- Caldwell.
Goals:- Nakamura 25, Samaras 37, McDonald 76, McGeady 83.
Hamilton:-
Cerny, Mensing, Elebert, Swailes (Corcoran 46), Easton, Neil, Graham (Thomas 77), McCarthy, Canning, McArthur, Lyle (Ettien 46).
Subs Not Used:- Murdoch, Casement, McClenahan, Akins.
Booked:- Neil.
Att:- 55,881
Ref:- S Conroy
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
KStreet
Stats
CELTIC – HAMILTON
Possession
| 61% | 39% |
Shots on target
| 16 | 3 |
Shots off target
| 5 | 2 |
Corners
| 9 | 2 |
Fouls
| 10 | 18 |
Articles
Celtic 4-0 Hamilton Accies
By Martin Conaghan
BBC
Celtic climbed back to the top of the Scottish Premier League table with a comfortable victory over Hamilton.
Shunsuke Nakamura gave the home side the lead after 25 minutes, firing in from an Aiden McGeady cross.
Georgios Samaras replaced Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink after 60 seconds and fired in the second in the 37th minute.
Scott McDonald slammed home a third in after 76 minutes and McGeady netted a late winner after James McArthur's penalty was saved by Artur Boruc.
Midfielder Barry Robson started the match at left-back, while in-form striker Samaras found himself rested on the bench.
Barely one minute after kick-off, Vennegoor of Hesselink limped off with a groin strain following a careless challenge on Hamilton's Alex Neil and Samaras took his place.
Fully 18 minutes expired before the first opportunity of the match arrived when Robson flighted in a ball to the back post.
Samaras nodded it down, but Hamilton keeper Tomas Cerny cleared off the line.
Four minutes later, the stalemate was broken when McGeady broke down the right hand side and delivered a delightful cross to the back post which Nakamura calmly collected and thundered into the back of the net from six yards out.
As the half-hour mark approached, McDonald was denied by the woodwork from close range.
Samaras doubled Celtic's lead and took his SPL tally into double figures with eight minutes of the first-half remaining. Nakamura collected a MacDonald lay-off and threaded a slick pass across the 18-yard line for the Greek international to power in.
On the stroke of half time, McGeady latched on to a McDonald pass deep inside the Hamilton penalty area, but tried to place the ball with only Cerny to beat and the Czech keeper blocked his shot.
The one-way traffic continued after the break with early chances for Samaras and McDonald as Hamilton struggled to gain a foothold on the game.
Brian Easton almost put the ball in the back of his own net in the 51st minute when he attempted to clear a McGeady cross.
With an hour played, Corcoran tried to out-jump the Celtic defence after Simon Mensing had flighted in a searching ball, but the former St Mirren man overstretched himself and the header drifted over.
Moments later, McCarthy broke free down the left-hand side and fired in a powerful drive from the edge of the Celtic penalty area, but failed to reach the target.
With 14 minutes left on the clock McDonald fired in Celtic's third. The Australian striker powered into the box and recovered from a challenge to double-back and slot home his third of the season.
The match still had some drama when Gary Caldwell appeared to fell McCarthy in the box and referee Conroy pointed to the spot.
James McArthur stepped up for the penalty-kick, but Celtic keeper Artur Boruc made a superb double-save by first diving to deny the shot, then leapt to pull off a reflexive save and block the re-bounded header.
The final say was left to McGeady in the 83rd minute when the Irish international benefited from a weaving run by Maloney.
The former Aston Villa man dribbled his way to the bye-line and cut back for McGeady to fire in past three Hamilton defenders.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan:
"It was sheer determination and ability against people who wanted to work, but unfortunately for them we have more ability than them.
"They gave it their best shot, and we gave it our best shot in terms of how we prepare for the game and how you're respectful to your opponents.
"When you put that together, then the skill will win and we had more of that, and more pace.
"I thought Barry Robson was tremendous, his energy and his will to win, his enthusiasm.
"He could play in a lot of positions now. He could play on the right, left-back, central midfield."
Hamilton manager Billy Reid:
"It was a fantastic experience for us, but we knew beforehand that they have flair players, and on their day if they play, they're going to hurt you.
"Even when big Vennegoor went down early, you see Samaras warming up and you realise the strength and depth of squad they've got.
"I thought middle to front, they were exceptional, but I'm a bit disappointed in how we played.
"We have four of five players who did themselves justice, but we have better players who are better than that, and that's the frustrating thing for us as a club. "
Celtic: Boruc, Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Robson, Nakamura, Scott Brown (O'Dea 81), Crosas, McGeady, Vennegoor of Hesselink (Samaras 3), McDonald, Samaras (Maloney 77). Subs Not Used: Mark Brown, Donati, Hartley, Caddis.
Booked: Caldwell.
Goals: Nakamura 25, Samaras 37, McDonald 76, McGeady 83.
Hamilton: Cerny, Mensing, Elebert, Swailes (Corcoran 46), Easton, Neil, Graham (Thomas 77), McCarthy, Canning, McArthur, Lyle (Ettien 46).Subs Not Used: Murdoch, Casement, McClenahan, Akins.
Booked: Neil.
Att: 55,881
Ref: S Conroy
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan:
"It was sheer determination and ability against people who wanted to work, but unfortunately for them we have more ability than them.
"They gave it their best shot, and we gave it our best shot in terms of how we prepare for the game and how you're respectful to your opponents.
"When you put that together, then the skill will win and we had more of that, and more pace.
"I thought Barry Robson was tremendous, his energy and his will to win, his enthusiasm.
"He could play in a lot of positions now. He could play on the right, left-back, central midfield."
Hamilton manager Billy Reid:
"It was a fantastic experience for us, but we knew beforehand that they have flair players, and on their day if they play, they're going to hurt you.
"Even when big Vennegoor went down early, you see Samaras warming up and you realise the strength and depth of squad they've got.
"I thought middle to front, they were exceptional, but I'm a bit disappointed in how we played.
"We have four of five players who did themselves justice, but we have better players who are better than that, and that's the frustrating thing for us as a club. "
Aiden McGeady caps rout
Celtic 4 Hamilton 0
The League Against Cruel Sports would perhaps have intervened had they seen the series of stepovers with which Maloney, coming in from the left, befuddled first Simon Mensing and then Martin Canning before almost running out of space on the touchline. His feet and mind were still quick enough to provide the cutback which McGeady rolled home to finally get the goal his own excellent performance merited.
The late excitement, which included a controversial penalty missed by Hamilton, was welcome as the game appeared to have died midway through the second half with Celtic comfortable at 2-0. Then McGeady, perhaps because he was as bored as everyone else by this lengthy lull in the action, came back to life. He drew a good save from Tomas Cerny with a left-foot shot and then slanted a ball into the box which Canning pursued with Scott McDonald. The centre-back appeared to have the Australian cor-alled, but McDonald surprised him by sliding to take the ball and then getting up quickly and picking his spot to score. He patted his belly in celebration, a humourous response to recent accusations that he is looking rather portly this season.
Hamilton never looked likely to score until they were awarded what looked a sympathy penalty by Steve Conroy with 10 minutes to go. It came when James McCarthy stumbled through Stephen McManus’s block tackle on the edge of the box and straight into another, this time inside the area, by Gary Caldwell. The Scotland centre-back seemed to get a fair bit of the ball, but Conroy p o i n t e d t o t h e s p o t . J a m e s McArthur, though, saw his kick saved low to his left by Artur Boruc and was then denied again by the Polish goalkeeper as he tried to follow up with a header, before Barry Robson completed the clearance.
“That just sums up James McArthur’s day,” said Billy Reid, Hamilton’s manager, in an impressively honest appraisal of his side’s performance. “That’s probably the worst game he’s played for me.” Reid spared few of his players afterwards and even substituted two of them, David Grah a m a n d C h r i s t o p h e r Swailes, at half-time. “It could have been more than 4-0, we didn’t do ourselves justice. They are better than that.”
Gordon Strachan, by contrast, was “more than satisfied, delighted” with his side. “It was windy, wet and we had just played a European tie and had been on the plane for a long time. So to start as we did with energy and be respectful of Hamilton was great.” The only sore point for Celtic’s manager, or more precisely for Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, was the adductor muscle strain the big Dutchman suffered almost straight from kick-off as he stretched for the ball.
Georgios Samaras has been in scintillating and scoring form recently, so his omission from Strachan’s starting-line up was something of a surprise, yet he barely had time to take his seat on the bench before he was called into the fray to replace Vennegoor of Hesselink and almost gave Celtic an early lead. His downward header was stopped by the right foot of Cerny before Canning cleared. The delivery came from Robson, deployed in the new position of left-back due to Lee Naylor being injured. He advanced from here whenever possible, as Celtic were not examined defensively at all by Hamilton, whose cautious approach betrayed their Brazil-style away strip.
A goal for the home side was inevitable and came in the 26th minute when McGeady’s chip from the right made it over the despairing jump of David Elebert at the back post and was collected and then lashed home by Shunsuke Nakamura. This relaxed Celtic, which was not a good thing for the visitors.
Samaras was guilty of greed when he could have played Marc Crosas through, but elected to shoot instead. McDonald was keen to get involved, too, scenting goals in this game. He smacked a right-foot shot off a post after catching Mark Wilson’s header across goal on his chest. Celtic were not to be denied their second goal for long, though.
Boruc’s punt forward was flicked on by Samaras before McDonald mastered it and then spread play to the left to Nakamura. The Japanese international’s perceptive cutback invited Samaras to stroll onto it and sidefoot home, almost casually, from the edge of the box. Reid now glanced anxiously at his watch, hoping to make it to half-time safely, but more torture awaited him.