Leigh Griffiths hits treble as Celtic run riot

Celtic 8 Hamilton 1: Striker Leigh Griffiths helped himself to a hat-trick as Celtic thrashed hapless Hamilton 8-1 at Parkhead to go six points clear of Aberdeen at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership last night.

It was a spectacular first-half performance from the home side who were three goals ahead after just 10 minutes thanks to stand-in skipper Mikael Lustig, Nir Bitton and fellow midfielder Tom Rogic before in-form Griffiths notched a double before the interval.

Half-time substitute James Forrest scored eight minutes into the second-half before Griffiths grabbed his third and Celtic’s seventh with Callum McGregor making it eight right at the end.

Before that Hamilton’s second-half substitute Eamonn Brophy got goal on the break as a consolation for the abject New Douglas Park side who have now gone eight games without a win and are above 11th-placed Kilmarnock on goal difference.

Celtic manager Ronny Deila said: “It was a fantastic night, a very good performance.

“I’m very pleased by the performance from the boys.

“We looked very sharp. In training we have looked better and better recently. Tonight, you could see what tempo we can play at.”

CELTIC:

Gordon, Lustig, Ambrose, Simunovic (Forrest 46), Izaguirre, Bitton, McGregor, Mackay-Steven, Rogic (Allan 46), Armstrong, Griffiths (Cole 65).

Subs Not Used:

Ciftci, Commons, Bailly, Tierney.

HAMILTON:

McGovern, Gordon, Devlin, Tagliapietra, Kurakins, MacKinnon, Docherty, Gillespie (Lyon 84), Kurtaj (Imrie 46), Crawford, D’Acol (Brophy 61).

Subs Not Used:

Morris, Garcia Tena, Martin, Nade.

Referee:

Willie Collum.