There isn’t much to fear for Hoops fans today when you look at the numbers behind Celtic’s match against Hamilton.
Brendan Rodgers and his men want to rid themselves of the 1-1 draw against Suduva on Thursday night. That match followed a mini-crisis in recent times regarding transfer dealings.
However, today it’s all about the visit of Hamilton to Celtic Park.
It’s certainly not a fixture that strikes fear into the heart of any Hoops fan. Quite rightly too when you look at the stats behind the fixture.
The sides have faced each other 118 times in their history. Out of those clashes, Hamilton have only won nine. Added to that, just five of those victories have come at Celtic Park – the venue of today’s encounter.
The latest of those wins came in 2014 when Ronny Deila was just in the door. A horrific 1-0 home defeat on Hamilton immediately put pressure on the Norwegian. However, he did briefly recover before eventually leaving the club at the end of the 2015-16 season.
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Hamilton also nabbed a draw under Deila’s Hoops, and managed to net in four out of six games when the Norwegian was in charge.
Rodgers hasn’t had such woes against Hamilton however.
Under the Northern Irishman, Celtic have won all six meetings with Martin Canning’s men. The Hoops have also managed to keep three clean sheets in the process, conceding just three goals in total in those matches.
Impressively, Celtic have scored 15 goals in those six matches also. The Hoops have only failed to score once in their last 42 meetings with Accies – that 1-0 defeat in 2014.
At Celtic Park, the Bhoys have netted 18 in their last five at home to Hamilton.
Moussa Dembele or Leigh Griffiths will start this afternoon as Odsonne Edouard sits this one out. For the sake of omens, Griffiths would be the man for Rodgers to select.
The former Hibernian striker has netted in each of the last three seasons against Hamilton. He has also bagged a total of eight times against Accies since joining the club back in January 2014.
It’s not as though Dembele would be a poor option though. In his two years at the club, the Frenchman has also totalled three goals against Hamilton.
The omens look good for Celtic heading into this one. There may be a mini-crisis at the club these days, but this fixture should provide temporary relief.