Rodgers praises 'outstanding' Dembele after striker's brace sinks Hamilton
Boss Brendan Rodgers hailed a "moment of magic'' from Moussa Dembele after he scored a wonderful breakthrough goal in Celtic's 2-0 win over Hamilton.
Boss Brendan Rodgers hailed a "moment of magic'' from Moussa Dembele after he scored a wonderful breakthrough goal in Celtic's 2-0 win over Hamilton.
The first half at Parkhead was drifting to a dull conclusion when the 20-year-old French striker stepped past former Celt Massimo Donati and curled in a shot from the edge of the area.
Dembele added a second from the spot just before the hour mark to take him to 29 goals for the season before he was replaced by fit-again Leigh Griffiths.
The Hoops extended their unbeaten domestic run since the start of the season to 32 games to maintain their 24-point lead over Aberdeen at the top of the Premiership.
Rodgers, who will see how James Forrest is after the winger was substituted with a knee injury early in the game after a "really good, strong, aggressive challenge'' by Danny Redmond, was more than happy with Dembele's contribution.
"I was really pleased with the performance,'' he said.
"The control of the game was very good, especially in the second half.
"We maybe didn't find the spaces that we wanted to often enough in the first half.
"Our positioning didn't allow us to keep the ball well enough and move into the areas that hurt and probably our final pass was loose and heavy at times.
"But a moment of magic before the half time puts us 1-0 up and in the second half I thought we were excellent.''
Dembele had scored hat-tricks in two of his previous three matches, but Rodgers had no qualms about replacing him with Griffiths with 20 minutes remaining.
The Northern Irishman said: "Like I said before, there is no individual bigger than the team and I always think about the team.
"He was outstanding today. Maybe he could have got another hat-trick, but it doesn't matter, he got two, the first goal was great and the second one showed composure.
"The boys oozes quality and to see the improvement he is making for a 20-year-old is fantastic.
"But Leigh has been working very hard. We can't go with just one striker.
"I need to have two as fit as they can be. Moussa is at a high level and Leigh is working his way back and it was a nice 20 minutes for him.''
Accies boss Martin Canning found his side bottom of the table for the first time this season after Inverness's 2-1 win over Rangers on Friday night
Hamilton side host Aberdeen on Tuesday before facing the Light Blues in the William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.
After that come league games Hearts, Rangers and St Johnstone, all in the top six, but Canning insists he is not daunted by the fixture list.
He said: "Look at Inverness, they came here and lost 6-0, then drew with Hearts and beat Rangers.
"That shows you how tight this league is.
"We have beaten Aberdeen this season at home. We have been to Ibrox and drawn, we drew 3-3 with Hearts in a game we should have won, so we have competed with these teams and it is just a case of keeping the head, keeping working hard and trying to turn draws into wins more than we have done.''