BRENDAN RODGERS was very pleased with the groove of his Celtic side as they adjusted to the lay-off for the international break to pick up the form they were showing in the previous few weeks.
Hamilton were swept aside without any trouble and the points were never in doubt after Ryan Christie had given the visitors the lead in the opening stages as New Douglas Park.
Second half efforts from Scotty Sinclair and Leigh Griffiths completed the scoring in the early kick-off as Celtic moved three points ahead of Hearts and 5 ahead of the Rangers before their games kicked off.
And there would be an eye on Celtic’s Betfred Cup Final opponents who were also in South Lanarkshire today, playing Motherwell at Fir Park.
Neil Lennon’s Hibs side got off to a great start at Easter Road against Dundee but then somehow managed to let a two goal lead slip away and that finished all square at 2-2. Oh dear.
Over at Paisley the early pace-setters in the league Hearts had an absolute shocker losing 2-0 to St Mirren. Dear oh dear.
And at Fir Park, Motherwell thrashed Aberdeen 3-0. For a Hampden warm-up it was awful stuff from Derek McInnes’ outfit. Dear oh dear oh dear.
Only at Ibrox did the challenges get the points. The home side were holding on to a narrow 1-0 lead until the nerves were settled in the last ten minutes with a second goal and a third was added near the death. So they move up into second spot.
Brendan Rodgers was more concerned with his own side’s performance though than any of this.
“It was a good win, and off the back of the international break you want to come back and get the points on the board as quickly as you can,” he told the official website.
“We had to generate the rhythm and intensity in our own game today. I thought we did that really well, the passing was really crisp, and we could’ve been up by about three at half-time.
“We had trust in our position, and trust in our possession and our ability to get there – it was a very good win. We’ve got our rhythm back, that’s for sure, over this last period, which has been good to see.
“The confidence players have gained from playing well, being creative, scoring goals, that performance today looked like the first year I was here.
“The players came in, they really controlled the game, and they had that personality in the team to be aggressive.”
Also on The Celtic Star today…
‘It was dark times, there was a lot of frustration,’ Griffiths opens up…See HERE.
It’s Three and Easy for Celtic despite the ‘Honest Mistake’…See HERE.
‘Five star Celtic get set for the Big Fifty! How the League was Won 49 Times,’ David Potter…See HERE.
Charles Green, Christmas Day chicken, with pasta for Tiny Tim and pals…See HERE.
