Celtic’s Kris Commons scores his first goal against Hamilton.
AFP/Glasgow
Kris Commons marked his return from injury with a double to help Celtic to a comfortable 4-0 win over Hamilton Academical that took them clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership yesterday.
A well-organised Hamilton defence frustrated Celtic in the first half with Swedish striker John Guidetti guilty of missing a host of chances.
The breakthrough came in the 57th minute through Commons before Stefan Johansen tapped in a second.
Guidetti finally got on the scoresheet with a 78th-minute header before Commons made it 4-0 two minutes later as Celtic extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches ahead of Thursday’s Europa League return with Internazionale in Milan.
The win moves the Hoops three points clear at the top of the Premiership ahead of their clash with nearest rivals Aberdeen next weekend.
“It’s very tough when you come from the Europa League and have to go in to a game in the league three days later with a different atmosphere but we were switched on,” Celtic manager Ronny Deila said.
“In the second half they got tired and when we got the first goal they had to come forward and things opened up. We got four in the end and I’m very pleased with the performance.”
Hamilton player-manager Martin Canning added: “I thought for the first hour we did what we set out to do in terms of frustrating Celtic.
“We lost the ball cheaply and with the quality Celtic have they punished us. From there it was always difficult as they are a good side and capable of picking you off.”
Following their exertions in the 3-3 draw with Inter on Thursday, Deila made four changes to his side as James Forrest, Guidetti, Efe Ambrose and Commons all landed places in the starting line-up and that worked for the team.
