Celtic’s Four Goal Outburst enough for first place

By: Matt | October 5th, 2008

Well, it is official. Celtic exploded for four goals yesterday against new SPL kids Hamilton to jump into first place in the SPL. Rangers played today, but lost to St. Mirren 1-0 at Love Street making Celtic and Ranger’s even on points. However, Celtic’s offensive outburst put the Bhoys ahead in goal differential by two goals. The match against Hamilton saw Gordon Strachan using a bit of experimentation, with Barry Robson starting at left back, Marc Crosas, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, and Scott McDonald all getting the nods for the starting XI. Things did not start out well for Celtic though, as during the first 60 seconds of the match Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink picked up an injury and was immediately replaced by September’s Player of the Month Georgios Samaras. The scoring started for Celtic early, as twenty five minutes in Aiden McGeady played a good cross to Shunsuke Nakamura who then fired it into the net. Only twelve minutes later Georgios Samaras added to his SPL goal scoring lead after Naka played a nice pass to the “Gorgeous Greek”.

With only a quarter of an hour remaining, Scott McDonald got in on the scoring party after initially losing the ball to the defender, McDonald regained the ball and put it away. In response to some claims that he might not be fit as he should be, McDonald’s goal celebration seemed to touch on that subject, as you can see at the top of the post…

Hamilton were given a chance to mount a comeback late in the match when Gary Caldwell seemed to bring down a Hamilton player in the box, but Artur Boruc showed why he has the nickname “The Holy Goalie” and not only saved the penalty but saved the second effort header as well. A final touch of brilliance was shown when Shaun Maloney took the ball on a magical run and got the ball to Aiden McGeady who blasted the shot past three Hamilton defenders and put it in for the final goal of the game.

Hamilton may have been on a cold streak coming into the game, but their initial results show that they can beat you if you do not take them seriously. It was good to see solid performances from Naka, The Holy Goalie, and Aiden among others as they are keys to the team and without them, they team will go nowhere. It was also nice to see Celtic put a good amount of goals against teams we are supposed to beat. As the SPL standings currently show, it will be a close race and it may come down to goal differential so scoring 4 goals against a Hamilton may be the key at the end of the season.