Hamilton v Celtic: Match Preview Ban The Plastic

   As the opposition begins to fall away in the much heralded title race, tomorrows game with Hamilton could well be the one that realistically puts the title beyond Steven Gerrard…Yokerbhoy has a look at how the game with Hamilton is anything but Academical

  Out of the frying pan and into the fire we go – from the recent visit to the skating rink of Rugby Park to the New Douglas Park hovel (oh shite, we’ll also be back at the Macaroni to play the yellow hitmen at the beginning of March), where table tennis type bounces of the spinning ball variety leave players confused and fans more bemused than amused. 

  Will the madness ever end?

   Well, with the current ecological crisis raging, it’s pretty much in vogue to ban the use of countless plastic products and utensils in all walks of life, and rightly so. It’s high time some kind of campaign were to get off the ground in Scotland to kick these crap pitches into touch as well; they’re harming the game in so many ways and this is a cause that would surely garner support from many clubs. 

   Right, on to Sunday’s game against the Hamilton Hoops.

  No doubt you’ll remember that we have already struggled twice against these guys to get full points this season. The first meeting, in October, was when Elyounoussi on his debut provided the telling assist for Jamesie Forrest to score the only goal of the game early doors while the rest of the match (apart from terrific second half left foot effort from Jamesie that crashed off the crossbar) deteriorated into some sort of lucky bounce free for all ordeal, with us grimly hanging on to get the win.

  Second time round was a slack, sloppy, horrendous affair at CP, where we allowed Accies a late equaliser through nº 99 Ogkmpoe and only an injury time goal from our Captain Marvel secured the points and spared our blushes.   

 Fortunately for us, on this occasion, the local side is severely hampered by injuries, particularly in defence, which has generously contributed to a poor run of results and an alarming drop in form. 

Although they were both well-organised and determined early on in a recent midweek game at Easter Road and even grabbed a shock lead, they fell to bits in the second half and can even consider themselves fortunate not to lose by more than just 2-1. This disappointment was followed up by a farcical home performance against Livingston, in which they also took the lead only to be dumped 2-4, another scoreline that flattered them. They really were that bad.

The good news for Accies is that one of their top performers this season, goalkeeper Luke Southwood (on loan from Reading), has had his loan extended to the end of the season after initially being re-called by the Royals (what a shitty nickname for a football club).

In fact he viewed last Saturday’s debacle from the subs bench (he’d probably just got off the plane from London) and must have looked on feeling pretty horrified as his deputy, the sluggish one time capped taff Owain Fon Williams, played like a right diddy between the sticks with many a fumble, frequent duff kick outs and painfully slow reactions.

Southwood will definitely be selected to face us but Williams, who has just been loaned out to Dunfermline, wasn’t the only one to make an arse of things.

The Hams’ makeshift defence didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory either. Norwegian (lump of) wood Markus Fjortoft, formerly of the Duke Blue Devils and the New York Red Bulls, had an absolute stinker last Saturday. With the first touch of a drunken elephant and as slow as dry rot, the big 6’3” bungler takes a large slice of the blame although CB partner Shaun Want was also found wanting.

The Lanarkshire side is already lamenting the absence of solid and consistent CB Sam Stubbs (Alan Stubbs’ boy), who was re-called by Middlesborough. His replacement could be another Sam, in this case Sam Woods coming in on loan from Crystal Palace. Woods was immediately thrown into the first team but was deployed as a RB and, quite predictably, had a poor game. Long-term absentee RB Aaron McGowan, who had done superbly well up until his injury, is another one that is being sorely missed. There is hope, however, that a couple of players from their lengthy injury list are on the brink of a comeback and might even be thrown in against us.

Teenage sensation, the appropriately named Jamie Hamilton (17), is a central defender with a very bright future ahead of him and is on the brink of a comeback after injury. It just goes to show how desperate things must have become when a seventeen-year-old turns into your best option in the centre of defence. To make matters worse, experienced ex-St Johnstone midfielder Brian Easton has been missing through injury for a good while with Cypriot defender Alex Gogic being deployed in a DM role. Being a natural defender and given the current state of affairs, you wouldn’t rule him out from returning to the heart of the defence, where he had performed quite well last season. Scott McMann at LB has also been notably weak in recent matches.

The aforementioned injury issues together with a great deal of chopping and changing have really done the Accies no favours. The entire back four have been well off the pace for quite a lengthy spell, with a combination of poor man marking, ball watching and a general lack of speed and mobility costing them dear.

Although Hamilton’s midfield has been lacking in spark, energy and creativity of late, there are a couple of decent players in there. While it’s true that ex-captain Darian McKinnon’s influence will be missed (he’s not at Thistle and played against us in the cup), the truth is that he had drifted out of the first team picture but at the same time it’s clear that his absence has created a void and now there is a clear lack of overall leadership in the team.

Micky Miller might not be blessed with remarkable technical skills but he is a tireless runner who gives over 100% in every game. Their best playmaker is another talented teenager, Lewis Smith (19), who has been attracting a fair bit of attention from clubs down south but these days he is being deployed in a deeper role than before, rendering him far less effective and giving him a lot less scope to express himself in what he does best, i.e. open up defences with crisp incisive passes and get himself forward into dangerous positions.

Up front they are also a bit short due to injuries. Top scorer for the club this season George Oakley as well as fellow forward David Moyo (a decent all-round player) are also likely to be ruled out so sturdy Greek striker (of Nigerian origin) Marios Ogkmpoe is likely to spearhead the attack against us at New Douglas Park.

His first touch lets him down a bit and his form blows a bit hot and cold but his physicality and knack of moving into good scoring positions could make him a bit of a handful for our defence and he did cause us quite a few problems the last time the two sides met at Celtic Park.

I doubt very much that Hamilton’s worrying dip in form could have a strong connection to manager Brian Rice’s breach of SFA rules by betting on SPFL results as he is an experienced professional that should be able to shut all this out of his mind and remain focussed on his daily duties.

He’s a stubborn battler and shrewd tactician who has done extremely well with the modest Lanarkshire club over the last three years. In fact, it was brave of him to bring his gambling addiction out into the open in the way he did and, in these cases, professional aid should always be readily available for people in his predicament. If I’m not mistaken, he’s just received a dugout ban of 10 games (5 of them are suspended) from the SFA.

Last minute signing David Templeton (31) goes straight into the squad for Sunday’s fixture. The winger had previously played for the Accies before signing for Burton Albion, where he was only a bit part player. I have memories of him being quite a handy footballer with a very good goalscoring record when he played for the huns in the lower leagues for four years.

Hamilton provisional squad:

Southwood, Fjortoft, Woods, Hunt, McMann, Want, Gogic, Alston, Martin, Ogkmpoe, Miller, Dales, Davies, Templeton, Collar, Smith,  Winter, Cunnningham.

Thanks to some unexpected outside help from the jambos, and Aberdeen pichning a point at Ibrox, we are now undisputed leaders once again, even if the blue vermin win their game in hand. But, as we all know only too well, this is not the time for celebration. The wise old Spanish idiom “Ya no es momento como para tirar cohetes” (now is not the time to be firing rockets) springs to mind.

Playing any away game, despite our rival’s poor current form, must not be taken lightly, especially when we have to put up with an artificial playing surface, not to mention the “imaginative and cryptic refereeing” that is likely to go on.

However, a win will strike a hammer blow to the hopes of the hordes.

Last Wednesday’s game in the rain against strugglers St Johnstone served up a scintillating first half, followed by a bizzare last 45 minutes, in which there was a comedy of errors followed up by another comedy of errors creating a sort of domino effect.

Players moved into unfamiliar positions as a lot of slackness and unforced errors started to creep in more and more as the game went on. It’s a great pity to be losing Mikey Johnston for possibly the rest of the season, especially in the circumstances that transpired but we just have to get on with it.

I’m sure the dust will soon settle (if it hasn’t already) and there won’t be any bad blood over it.  Hopefully both men involved in the controversy will have learned from this. Fortunately Mo Elyounoussi’s comeback shouldn’t be too far away while Arzani is also an option on the left wing, even if he hasn’t been named in the provisional squad.

He should get the nod to sit on the bench before Bolingoli all the same.

The wee teams often feel they’ve got nothing to lose when they come up against one of the top two in the SPFL and I’d imagine Hamilton to be no different. They’ll see it as a ‘free hit’ and might well manage to make a superhuman effort to raise their game against us, so a professional job to dispose of them will be required.

It would be ideal to start the match with a flurry in a bid to secure a cushion of hopefully two goals and then exercise control of the game by keeping possession for long spells, hunting in packs to win back possession, showing determination to win those 50-50 balls and closing them down well at the rear when they push forward with the ball.

Things have to be a lot tighter at the back and care has to be taken to minimise the possibility of unforced errors.  Our defenders will have to be on their guard this time against long balls over the top, fast counters and set pieces.

Close man marking and attacking the ball without fear should be the order of the day. Jullien will have to wisen up a bit, be sharper and not get caught in possession. Bauer is likely to start so I just hope he does a better job closing down space when we’re under attack on that flank.

Not unlike Bolingoli, the Austrian hairdresser doesn’t hide and is keen to push forward but is seriously lacking in all-round quality. He’ll have to do for now though.

I’m quite optimistic about this recent 3-5-2 formation but with a lack of centre back cover at the moment (although it’ll be interesting to see if young Steven Welsh can stake a claim for first team action in the coming weeks), I feel it would be wiser to go with a 4-4-2 diamond, where the full backs can still bomb forward and whip in dangerous crosses whilst Broonie, Calmac & Co can maintain a stranglehold in midfield with a further opportunity for the new strike partnership to develop.

We’ll probably see an encounter that’ll be something similar to the last one here four months ago, only this time I hope we can bag a couple of early goals to ease the pressure and then see the rest of the game through with class and composure.

Forster

Bauer                           Jullien                          Ajer                 Taylor

Brown

Ntcham                                                            McGregor

Christie

Griffiths                       Edouard

Subs: Gordon, Welsh, Simunovic, Hayes, Rogic, Arzani, Klimala

Prediction: Hamilton 0 Celtic 2 (Calmac, Odsonne)

COYBIG