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Ali Crawford’s second-half goal gave Hamilton a dramatic 1-0 victory over Scottish champions Celtic to win at Parkhead for the first time in 76 years and go top of the Premiership table yesterday. |
Hamilton midfielder Crawford silenced the home support when he struck four minutes after the break to give Hamilton the lead.
Celtic then missed numerous chances as Hamilton hung on to record their first win at the home of the Glasgow giants since 1938, with victory catapulting the visitors to the top of the table.
The home side were booed off at full-time, with much of the Celtic fans’ ire directed at new manager Ronny Deila, who has failed to impress since since taking over following the pre-season resignation of Neil Lennon. Defeat left Celtic in an unusually low sixth place in the table, with the Hoops having already dropped 10 points so far this season.
And while Deila may have been bearing the brunt of the Parkhead faithful’s anger, Celtic captain Scott Brown said the players were the ones to blame. “We missed a few chances but at the end we didn’t deserve anything to be perfectly honest,” he insisted. “We didn’t play as well as we should have. We didn’t have enough movement and there weren’t enough people wanting the ball,” the Scotland international said. “People were just hiding and it was disappointing to see and play in.”
It was Celtic’s first home league defeat since November 2012, when they lost to Inverness but Deila was surprisingly upbeat in the circumstances. “I’m not worried at all. I think we’re progressing.
“When you have 10 to 15 chances, you have played quite well. We got the full-backs more into the attack, we got more set-plays and more crosses. “But of course you need to put the ball in the net, that is what football is about.”
For newly-promoted Accies it was the most impressive of an already impressive start to the season that has seen them lose just once and player/manager Alex Neil was in no doubt about what it meant to the club’s supporters.
“If you are a Hamilton Accies fan and not top of the world at the moment, you never will be. If you’re an Accies fan this is the pinnacle.
“We had a really successful season last year that culminated in going to Hibs and knocking them out the Premiership but today it was David versus Goliath if you look at the teams.
“Celtic are an institution in Scotland, where we’re a small club with 1500 fans. “Celtic have 50,000 and that’s only the ones who come to the games. “There’s a huge gulf in terms of the clubs but on the pitch it’s 11 against 11 and I thought our team were magnificent, particularly as they were such a young group.”
Sunday’s other Scottish Premiership match saw Inverness and Ross County share the points in a 1-1 draw. Yoann Arquin gave bottom-of-the-table County a 21st-minute lead before Marley Watkins drew Caley level four minutes after half-time.
