Celtic came from behind to beat Hamilton 3-1 on Saturday and overtake Rangers at the top of the SPL on goal difference.
Mark McLaughlin had given the visitors a very early lead before Shaun Maloney bagged a brace and Gary Hooper rounded off a seventh league win from seven this season for Neil Lennon’s men.
The Accies took a shock lead after just three minutes. A corner was swung in by Dougie Imrie and Martin Canning was left disgracefully unmarked to nod the ball back across goal to McLaughlin, who stooped to head in from close range.
It could have been 2-0 soon after but on-loan goalkeeper Frazer Forster raced from the Bhoys goal to take the ball from the feet of the onrushing Nigel Hasselbaink.
Hamilton were really enjoying a good spell and Imrie and Simon Mensing both tested Forster again before the wind was taken out of their sails by Maloney.
It was similar to the Accies goal as Ki Sung-Yueng sent in a corner, Daniel Majstorovic headed into a busy six-yard area and former Aston Villa man Maloney pounced to celebrate his recall to the Scotland squad with a goal.
That inspired Celtic to begin dominating as they would have been expected to, but a raft of attacks came to nothing before the break as the sides went in level.
Canning headed into Forster’s hands early in the second half, but his side were in the main on the backfoot and finally fell behind on 64 minutes. James Goodwin muscled Scott Brown off the ball as Celtic attacked, but that only led to Maloney rifling in an unstoppable shot to Tomas Cerny’s far corner from the free that followed.
Former Scunthorpe United man Hooper then sealed the win seven minutes later, capitalising on dozy Accies defending to rifle the ball under Cerny and into the net.