In the 86th minute, just when ten-man Accies looked as if they'd done enough to earn a share of the points, Paul Hartley stepped forward onto a return pass from Scott Brown and smashed home the winner that had looked so unlikely for so long against the determined Hamilton side. Celtic, the masters of the late winning goal, had again demonstrated their will to win on a day when many of the team were below par.
Richard Offiong had opened the scoring for the home side after connecting with Trent McLenahan's cross 15 yards out and sending a diving header flying past goalkeeper Mark Brown and the SPL's basement team held their lead until just before half-time when Celtic were awarded a penalty. Cillian Sheridan was fouled by Accies defender Martin Canning as he chased a through ball into the box and the ref correctly dismissed Canning, the last defender, and awarded the spot kick which Shunsuke Nakamura duly converted.
Setanta TV's Scott Booth, as usual, was quick to label the penalty award as unjust and claimed the offence had taken place outside the box. Although Booth tried his level best to have us doubt the evidence of our own eyes the slow motion replays of the incident were inconclusive. But they were conclusive enough for Booth and the red tops will now follow follow suit and report that opinion as fact.
Walter Smith has already committed the details of the incident to memory, as well as personal details of both officials involved in the decision, in case he needs to make any more 'compare and contrast' speeches in the next few months. Walter's not paranoid, he's always known that there were corrupt officials working in the Scottish game, he's just never seen them work against his club before.
Anyway, despite Booth's pathetic whining, Champions Celtic now move four points clear at the top of the SPL following the 2-1 victory and they regain their advantage over Rangers who themselves struggled to beat St Mirren at home by the same scoreline. Hamilton Accies remain at the foot of the table despite their very creditable performance.
Gordon Strachan watched his side labour for their 10th successive league win since losing to Rangers in August and congratulated Hamilton on their performance "I thought Accies were terrific,' he said. 'Their first-half performance was excellent and we did not have enough in our locker to break them down. I changed it for the second half and they were down to 10 men after the penalty. Our fitness helped in the last 10 minutes, with them having played for so long a man short. But credit to Hamilton they really did well."
The Celtic boss was happy with the referee's decision to award the spot kick "The referee made the decision and I just know he gave a penalty." said Strachan "I've been on the end of "harsh" before - things like that can happen in football and you just have to deal with it. But the winner was a great finish from Paul Hartley on a day we lacked a bit of quality."
Ex-Accies player Hartley also praised his local team "It was a difficult game but you've got to give credit to Hamilton, they played very well," said the Celtic midfielder. "They were at it in the first 20 minutes and got a fully-deserved goal. I thought at the time the foul on Sheridan was inside the box but I've been told it was outside. It is a tough decision on Hamilton but thankfully Shunsuke put the penalty away."
"They also got the man sent off and it made it more difficult for us." he continued "When they had ten men they played very well. I thought that it might tell in the second half but they got men behind the ball and cleared everything we threw at them. However, the spirit in this Celtic team is immense. We keep going until the end and know that if we can get one good chance, we will take it."