Scottish Premiership: Celtic beat spirited Hamilton at New Douglas Park

Celtic beat a lively Hamilton side 2-0 in freezing conditions in an entertaining Scottish Premiership match at New Douglas Park.

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A rare goal from Adam Matthews and Liam Henderson’s first goal of the season proved enough to give the visitors a deserved win in Saturday's Scottish Premiership encounter in Lanarkshire.

The opening strike came when Henderson and Leigh Griffiths combined to win possession from Tony Andreu before the latter found Kris Commons in a central position and he rolled the ball to the overlapping Matthews (33), who took one touch and crashed his shot into the roof of the net from 18 yards.

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Matthews was also involved as Celtic doubled the lead five minutes after the break when his deep cross was only cleared by Grant Gillespie to Emilio Izaguirre on the far side of the box and the ball broke to Henderson to sweep a low drive into the corner on the turn.

Celtic took the game to their hosts from the start and Commons sent an early glancing header into the side-netting from a Stefan Johansen corner, before the former clipped another effort straight at Michael McGovern from 16 yards.

Commons then turned supplier when Virgil van Dijk rose to meet his swirling corner eight yards out but his header was easily saved by McGovern.

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At the other end, Craig Gordon twice came to Celtic’s rescue to deny Mickal Antoine-Curier and then save the rebound from Andreu.

Five minutes before the break, Scott Brown found space on the edge of the Accies penalty area but his curled effort dropped over the crossbar.

Accies tried to rally after the second goal and Gordon got down to keep out a low drive through Izaguirre’s legs from Dougie Imrie, and from the resulting corner the Accies forward beat the offside trap to head over the bar from six yards.

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Commons then tried his luck from around 20 yards shortly before he took a reverse flick from Brown on the volley on the right side of the penalty area, but both attempts rose over the target.

In another neat move, Johansen laid off a short pass from Matthews into the path of Griffiths (75), and his swerving drive from 20 yards stung the palms of McGovern.

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And nine minutes from time, Ali Crawford played a low angular pass to the far side of the Celtic box behind Jason Denayer but substitute Eamonn Brophy failed to get any power into his shot and Gordon made a comfortable save.

Griffiths then had the final chance when he carried a Johansen pass into the box but his low drive from the right was easily saved by McGovern.

And with Dundee earning a 3-3 draw at Pittodrie, Aberdeen's lead at the top of the table has been cut to two points having played two games more that Celtic.