Matty Hughes’ late header sealed three precious championship points for Celtic against Hamilton today and set Stevie Frail’s side up perfectly for Tuesday’s clash with Rangers at Murray Park.
Seven league matches and a cup final against Rangers during April will decide the outcome of this season’s silverware with back-to-back wins away to Kilmarnock and Hamilton proving the perfect start.
Today’s win wasn’t as eye catching as the 8-0 demolition of Hamilton on the opening day of the season but the three points are every bit as valuable.
“At this time of the season for teams in our position it always gets tight and nervy,” Frail explained.
“It’s all about getting three points, we weren’t pleased about the goals that we lost but we showed a lot of character to keep coming back.
“To play for Celtic you have to be big and strong even at youth level. Everyone wants to beat you and we have to rise to that every game and we did that.
“We created enough chances in the first half to be out of sight but never showed the quality in front of goal.
“To get the winner the way that we did with Matty’s header was really pleasing. We get on at Matty to be more of a threat at set-pieces and he did that today. It was a great delivery and he got his head to it and put it in the corner.
“Greig Spence did really well for us when he came on. He’s a poacher and I think almost all of his goals last season came from within the six yard box.
“Whether Bahrudin’s (Atajic) shot was going in anyway I don’t know but Greig was there to put it in and that’s what all good strikers do. We’re pleased to have him back in the team and he did really well.”
Frail added: “Today was our biggest game of the season but now the next match against Rangers is the big match.
“We’ll look positively towards Tuesday’s match but we’ll check on the players tomorrow to see how everyone is.”
Hamilton 2-3 Celtic match report
Youth team gallery
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
CELTIC: Feely, ODonnell, Hughes, Toshney, Lowdon; Irvine, Bagshaw, F Twardzik (P Twardzik 52), Keatings (Spence 43), Watt (Atajic 66)
SUBS: Thomson, Jones, Gormley, Brennan
Goals: Irvine 55, Spence 67, Hughes 81.
[bet_365 type=’generic’ size=’468′ af_code=’365_050711′]