Having seen their manager – who got them promoted and into a great position in the Premiership – leave to take charge at Norwich at the beginning of the year, Hamilton were a touch unlucky to lose 3-2 at home to Dundee United on Monday night. They came back from two goals down and look the more likely to get a winner but it was a defeat in his first game as caretaker player-manager for Martin Canning. Things don’t get much easier for him either with the next match against current champions Celtic at New Douglas Park on Saturday afternoon.
Having been involved in European football for the first half of the season, Celtic invoked their right to take a mini winter break following their last Premiership game, a 2-0 win at Kilmarnock. The result of postponing last weekend’s game is they now sit four points behind leaders Aberdeen. They do have two games in hand, of course, but few would have expected them to have such a challenge on their hands after coasting to the league title in the absence of Rangers the last two seasons. Manager Ronny Deila will be hoping the rest works in their favour between now and the end of the season in a bid to avoid embarrassment.
Hamilton have been very consistent at home since returning to the top flight in Scotland, winning six and losing just twice in 10 matches. For all they have been strong at home and enjoyed some memorable wins, there’s no doubting their best result came on their travels when they won 1-0 at Celtic Park in October. And it was a win they throughly deserved.
It was never going to be easy for Delia coming in and taking over from Neil Lennon with the previous manager winning three straight league titles in his time in charge. He has been vocal in his bid to bring in new players but as it stands, it looks likely that he will have to go with what he has at his disposal as he looked to mark his first season with success. A domestic treble is still possible whilst they have a last 32 tie against Inter Milan in the Europa League to look forward to next month.
This should be a very decent game tomorrow as Hamilton will take the game to Celtic as they do in every home game. It took them a while to find their stride on Monday but the two goals they managed took their home tally to 23, the best in the league. Celtic are of course the biggest club in this division, by some distance, but they have looked disjointed a lot of the time under Delia and do not like being pressured. They may end up having too much for the home side but Hamilton are good enough to score at least once.
Both teams to score 20/23 @ BetVictor
