Celtic Spirit Delights Boss Ronny Deila After Win At Hamilton

Celtic manager Ronny Deila hailed his players' fight and character after they came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Hamilton.

Some poor defending from Dedryck Boyata allowed Gramoz Kurtaj to hit a fourth-minute opener, but the Belgian defender atoned when he volleyed home a Leigh Griffiths free-kick in the 26th minute.

And Griffiths got above Ziggy Gordon to head home Saidy Janko's cross six minutes later to move Celtic a point behind Premiership leaders Aberdeen.

It was a very tough game,'' Deila said.We started poorly and found ourselves 1-0 down but we got back in and were very effective.

It was one of the days where you just have to fight for the points and get through it.

We have played so many games lately and a lot of players are tired and have issues they have to handle. So I'm proud of the discipline and the character we showed to get back in the game and win.

We were a bit lucky but we have been very unlucky in other games. Hearts should have been 4-0 and we should have beaten Kilmarnock.''

Deila was proud of the way his side recovered from Thursday's Europa League draw with Fenerbahce to make it four league wins from four following their European games this season.

Europa League is the hardest thing to be in,'' he said.Last year we struggled when we came back and this year we have four games and 12 points. So we are learning.

Everyone talks about Celtic, that they have to win everything and they are so much bigger than everybody else.

We say we should be the best but I don't think people understand how tough it is for clubs like this. You have to win every week, the players play for their national team and we play double the amount of matches as the others.

They prepare for a week and we have a cup final here every time we come. We played two and a half days ago and went straight into it.

We have seven victories, two draws and a loss. That's better than last year and we are going to get better and push on.''

Accies boss Martin Canning was frustrated with the goals his side conceded but also proud of their efforts.

In the first half we scored a great goal and maybe tried to protect what we had before we should have done,'' Canning said.We showed them a little too much respect in the first half and sat off them.

The goals we conceded were sloppy. He (Griffiths) has out-jumped our full-back, which is poor from our point of view.

The second half we were different class, without really creating a clear-cut opportunity. The biggest things are frustration and pride. The players worked so hard.

Maybe in the last 15 minutes we never worked their two centre-backs enough and put the ball forward and give them something to defend.''