Leigh Giffiths and Dedryck Boyata came up with the goals as Celtic struggled to a 2-1 win away to Hamilton Accies.
A 12.30 kick off on an artificial surface three days after a draining Europa League tie was never going to bring out the best in Ronny Deila’s side even allowing for four changes to the starting XI.
Saidy Janko, Tyler Blackett and Emilio Izaguirre came in to join Boyata in defence with Tom Rogic replacing Stefan Johansen in the attacking midfield trio.
Hamilton took just four minutes to open the scoring but two goals within a five minute spell later in the half ensured that Celtic took full advantage of Aberdeen’s defeat from St Johnstone to cut the gap at the top of the table to a single point.
Describing the winning goal Deila said: “He’s small but his timing is fantastic. You see when the cross comes in he’s just hanging there. He can score all types of goals and he’s an important player for us.”
Looking at the surface the Celtic boss was less happy saying: “The pitch today was very, very bad to play on. It was slippy all the time.
“We didn’t have control of the ball so then you get a lot of running. This was an open match and we needed character to turn this around. I’m very proud we managed to get the three points.
“I’m very fond of artificial pitches but this is something I have seen in four games here now. People are slipping all the time and something has to be wrong with it, it’s not normal.”
Deila’s squad will now disperse across the globe before returning for the next Premiership fixture away to Motherwell on October 16.
