Celtic stretched six points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL with a 4-0 win over Hamilton at Parkhead. Georgios Samaras with two and one apiece from Aidan McGeady and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was more than adequate to easily dispose of disappointing Hamilton.
Celtic boss Gordon Strachan was full of praise for his charges.
"I think overall it was top class today from start to finish.
"But yes, it was pleasing to get Jan a goal and Sammy two - that's three they have scored in one game so their average is going up.
"The attitude of the two of them have been fantastic.
"I told Jan recently that he could have no regrets, that he did not need to reproach himself.
"I said to him, 'you are training incredibly hard and doing as much as you can and you are a total professional so things like this happen and you have to keep at it'.
"We needed the second and then we could relax and after three we could take in the rest of the game.
"It was a good day's work but it is a big day tomorrow and we have to see how our opponents go.
"It's a cliche but we had to do our stuff today and we had to do it with real class and real professionalism."
Hamilton boss Billy Reid accepted Celtic were the better team on the day.
The Accies boss said: "We are not judged when playing Celtic at Parkhead.
"We wanted to come here and put in a good performance.
"But we decided to go with a lot of youth and gave Stuart Mills his debut and I thought he handled it pretty well.
"We had nothing to lose, nobody expected us to win.
"But I was disappointed in the first two goals we lost.
"We knew Celtic would have lots of possession but I thought we started fairly well.
"But the first goal was a bit of a disaster.
"I think the ball went through Alex Neil's legs but I don't know how that happened.
"And then Grant Evans was done with the ball in behind for Aiden's goal and it was a good finish.
"After that it was always going to be difficult.
"We tried to pass the ball, but Celtic are a good side at home and they were deserved winners."
