Following a disappointing loss at Tynecastle last week, Celtic are looking to rebound against Hamilton at Parkhead. The Hoops seemed to be cruising in the lead up to the Hearts game having won several fixtures and seeing a second string team gamely draw 3-3 in Austria, but were undone by a penalty conceded as Gary Caldwell put in a risky last ditch tackle after some untidy work by Glenn Loovens.
Hamilton have won their last two games and will look to steal a point from the hosts in their efforts to distance themselves from the bottom of the table. The Accies last encounter with the Old Firm saw them thrashed 4-1 by Rangers, and they will be looking to give a better account of themselves this time around.
Celtic's logical defensive centre pairing is likely to consist of Loovens and McManus, two strong defenders who are known for occasional lapses in judgement. In their last outing the pair shipped 3 goals within 20 minutes to Rapid Wien and were only bailed out through the efforts of a Niall McGinn led attack.
McGinn will hope to become part of the midfield equation, but will face competition for the left wing slot by Barry Robson and a recently returned Paddy McCourt. Ask a fan on the street which of the three you'd like to see out there and the opinion would probably split 50/50 between the Northern Irishmen who have shown glimpses of legitimate promise. Zheng Zhi has also returned from a spell with the Chinese national team and will hope to see some time off the bench as the team of Crosas and N'Guemo has become the usual.
Danny Fox struggled somewhat in the days prior to the Hearts game with a knock picked up in training. He seems to be fit, but Wilson, Caddis, and Naylor are itching to get some gametime if he or Hinkel can't play. As of now Fox and Hinkel seem most likely to continue their run of games.
Up front an interesting quandary has emerged for Tony Mowbray. Samaras is almost a certain as he has continued his goal-a-game strike ratio stretching back a few games. However, the question of who will partner him remains. McDonald has seemed to drift out of games and only linked well with Samaras sporadically. Having said that, the Aussie does lead the team with goals and has a nasty habit of finding that opportunistic moment in front of the net. Fortune has also looked fairly good and nearly equalized against Hearts but found the post with a difficult angled header one yard beyond the post. His strength and running ability have seemed to have returned as of late.
Predicted lineup:
Boruc
Hinkel-Loovens-McManus-Fox
McGinn-N'Guemo-Crosas-McGeady
Samaras-Fortune
All the best wishes for the holiday (retroactively) for whoever honored me by reading this, and my apologies in not having time to find pictures to pretty up the article with.
'Mon the Hoops!!!!
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