Hamilton 1 - 2 Celtic: Hartley sinks hometown club with late strike

Published on Sunday 16 November 2008 21:56

PAUL Hartley helped keep Hamilton Accies afloat 12 years ago when they sold him to Millwall for what remains a club record transfer fee of £380,000.

Yesterday, the midfielder who occasionally still pays his way in to watch his hometown club broke their hearts with a dramatic late winning goal for Celtic which re-established the champions' four-point lead over Rangers at the top of the SPL.

This was the ultimate hard luck story for Hamilton who were left to curse the intervention of assistant referee Chris Young who wrongly signalled a penalty for Celtic in the incident which saw Martin Canning sent off seven minutes before half-time.

Gordon Strachan's team, a pale shadow of the outfit who had racked up nine successive SPL wins coming into this fixture, seized the lifeline which allowed them to cancel out Richard Offiong's early goal and set up the platform to make it ten-in-a-row in front of a new record attendance at New Douglas Park.

Hamilton manager Billy Reid's formation suggested he was intent on a damage limitation exercise, which would have been understandable given the respective form of the teams coming into the fixture, but it proved to be far from the case.

Aided by Celtic's general sluggishness, Hamilton full-backs Trent McClenahan and Brian Easton were able to push forward regularly to reinforce the midfield and effectively form an unusual 3-6-1 set-up until Canning's departure. Lone striker Offiong received plenty of support from both James McCarthy and the outstanding James McArthur, the home side's pace and urgency causing real concern for the Celtic back four.

Although Strachan's men posted the first effort on target, Cillian Sheridan's shot in the fourth minute comfortably saved by Tomas Cerny, it was Hamilton who produced by far the most cohesive and threatening football before they were reduced to 10 men.

Typical of their inventive approach, which belied their status at the foot of the table, was a neat move involving captain Alex Neil and McArthur on the right to set up a chance for Offiong whose shot from the edge of the penalty area dipped narrowly over Mark Brown's crossbar.

Offiong has struggled to recapture the goalscoring form which took Hamilton to the First Division title last season, the Englishman's only previous strike of the current campaign having come at Inverness back in August.

He doubled his tally here in impressive fashion to give Accies their fully merited 15th minute lead. McCarthy sprayed a pass to McClenahan wide on the right and the Australian's excellent cross picked out Offiong's run between Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus, the forward heading the ball firmly beyond the helpless Brown.

Suddenly sensing this match may hold more in store for them than anyone would have predicted, Hamilton were unfortunate not to increase their lead before the turn of events which swung the balance of play back in Celtic's favour.

Easton's in-swinging corner from the right found Offiong in a congested six-yard box and the striker's close range header provoked an instinctive save from Brown who knew little about it as he diverted the ball narrowly over for a corner.

Celtic appeared devoid of a creative spark, only rarely putting the home defence under pressure, such as when Caldwell's quickly taken free-kick sent Andreas Hinkel free down the right to drive in a low shot which Cerny was forced to turn behind at his near post.

Hinkel, back in the Germany squad for this week's international against England in Berlin, then sparked the move which earned Celtic their controversial penalty and saw Canning sent off seven minutes before the interval.

The full-back's long through ball sent Sheridan racing clear of Canning and the defender clipped the young Irish striker's heels to deny him a clear goalscoring opportunity. If referee Conroy was right to show Canning a straight red card, his decision to point to the spot on the advice of his assistant was highly questionable as contact clearly looked to have been made outside the penalty area before Sheridan went down inside.

Once the protests of the home side had subsided, Shunsuke Nakamura stepped forward to convert the penalty in consummate fashion, despite Cerny diving the right way.

Strachan made a change at half-time, replacing Mark Wilson with Barry Robson but the anticipated siege of the Hamilton goal did not materialise. It was easy to forget the home team were now short-handed, in fact, as Celtic struggled to turn an increased share of possession into scoring chances.

It was not until the closing 15 minutes, with Accies unsurprisingly tiring, that Celtic began to exert significant pressure. McClenahan made a brilliant block to deny Scott Brown and, with just five minutes remaining, Cerny pulled off a stunning one-handed save from substitute Georgios Samaras' header.

Just as it seemed the Slovakian 'keeper had secured a precious point for his team, however, he found himself beaten spectacularly as Celtic grabbed the kind of late winner which has become almost a trademark during Strachan's multi-title winning tenure. Cerny could only punch a Paul Caddis cross as far as Hartley who played a neat one-two with Brown before smashing an unstoppable right foot shot beyond the keeper's right hand.

Hamilton (5-4-1): Cerny; McClenahan, Swailes (Thomas 90), Canning, McLaughlin, Easton; Mensing, McArthur, Neil (Elebert 76), McCarthy; Offiong (Graham 83). Subs not used: Murdoch, Gibson, Stevenson, Lyle.

Celtic (4-4-2): M Brown; Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson (Robson 46); S Brown, Hartley, Donati (Caddis 72), Nakamura (Samaras 64); Maloney, Sheridan. Subs not used: Fox, Loovens, Mizuno, McGowan.

Reid slates officials after penalty decision robs battling side of a man and a chance

BILLY Reid, the Hamilton Accies manager, last night laid the blame for his team's eighth defeat in their last nine SPL games squarely at the door of assistant referee Chris Young.

The official sanctioned the award of Celtic's controversial penalty kick seven minutes before half-time after referee Steve Conroy had initially signalled for a free-kick outside the box when Martin Canning clipped Cillian Sheridan's heel. Canning was shown a straight red card before Shunsuke Nakamura converted the penalty to equalise Richard Offiong's opener for Hamilton. An admirable second half effort from Hamilton's ten men proved in vain when Paul Hartley grabbed Celtic's winner four minutes from time. "I'm proud of my players, but gutted for them," said Reid. "We outplayed Celtic for the first 35 minutes or so, scored a fantastic goal and were then undone by another decision which has gone against us. It is unjust and I can't explain it to the players.

"Our players said straight away that the incident happened outside the box and the TV evidence shows that to be the case. The referee actually indicated for a free-kick before the assistant got involved. Now, I'm all for assistants doing that if they are absolutely sure about it. If they are going to get involved in that way, they have to be certain it's the right decision.

"If it was at the other end of the pitch, would we have got a penalty and seen a Celtic player sent off? I'll leave that with you.

"I read and hear a lot about poor decisions this season, but it's certainly going against us... I just hope it evens itself out over the season."

Relieved Celtic manager Gordon Strachan praised Hamilton on a day his team fell far short of the standards which have allowed them to open up a four point lead at the top of the table.

"I thought Hamilton were terrific," he said, "

We lacked quality at times today, but fortunately we have people who can always pull something out of the bag."