SCOTT Brown has admitted that Celtic could hardly be in a better place as 2016 nears its end. While Brendan Rodgers’ side failed to progress from the Champions League group stages, domestically they have been dominant.
The Parkhead side are 14 points clear of Rangers at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table having played a game fewer. Celtic have also gone 21 domestic games unbeaten, with the Betfred Cup already stowed away in the trophy cabinet.
Their next engagement is a trip to face Hamilton Academical at the SuperSeal Stadium this afternoon, with matches against Ross County and Rangers still to come this month.
It is a busy schedule but not one which has worried Brown unduly, with the Celtic captain confident that a strong work ethic on and off the park is contributing to his side’s success.
“Everyone in that dressing room is enjoying football and enjoying training,” said the midfielder, whose side is once again likely to feature players from the club’s youth system today, with Rodgers having put his faith in Celtic’s youngsters during a win over Partick Thistle earlier this week.
“There’s competitiveness throughout the dressing room and I think that’s what is pushing us on. This is a good place to be just now; there are great spirits, the fans are behind us whether it’s home, away or Champions League or in the league so that’s the main thing.
“[The consistency] has shown in the results and hopefully we will have a lot more under Brendan.
“It has been a great five months so far and there’s still a long way to go for us. We’ve got three games before the winter break and we need to push everyone as far as we possibly can in the right direction.”
In the midst of an exacting month – by the end of which they will have played in nine matches – the champions defeated Hamilton 1-0 at Parkhead. That victory came just over a week ago, with Leigh Griffiths scoring the decisive goal.
However, Brown – whose side have James Forrest fit again – believes the artificial surface in Hamilton will make today’s encounter a different kind of test for Celtic.
“You know how they are going to shape up against you but it’s on astroturf, so it’s a totally different game for us,” he said.
“They train and play on it most weeks so they have the upper hand there. We’ll hopefully get the ball down and play better than we did last season, because we struggled there in the last couple of seasons.”
That sense of caution will perhaps come as a surprise to the Hamilton players, who are bracing themselves for another difficult shift trying to contain the most dangerous strikers in the league.
Both Griffiths and Moussa Dembele started in the home win over Hamilton earlier this month, an experience which has stuck with the Lanarkshire side’s defenders.
“It doesn’t matter which one plays, it’s going to be a difficult game,” said centre-back Michael Devlin, whose side must do without Grant Gillespie. “Leigh Griffiths’ movement is very, very clever. He scored a hat trick against us last season. He has a wee habit of scoring against us. It’s something we need to watch.”
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