As aesthetics go, this one would have viewers wish to look away

The league table, though, will make for a more comfortable spectacle as Celtic hone in on their seventh successive title. The Parrkhead side now formally require three points to clinch the title, a game that will come on the back of this Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers.

Yesterday afternoon’s win against ten-man Hamilton Accies will be little more than a statistical note on the way to that title which is perhaps just as well given the lethargic nature of the contest.

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Celtic started the game brightly on what is a horrendous surface and when Patrick Roberts and Callum McGregor combined to tee up a clever opening goal with just three minutes on the clock, everything points to a pretty straightforward say at the office.

Instead, though, Hamilton came back into when the impressive Rakish Bingham shrugged off the attentions of Kristoffer Ajer to slot past Scott Bain.

“He’s a great learner, Kris, and he’ll learn from that,” said Rodgers.

“If you look throughout the team, we have so many young players that are learning the game and Kris has been absolutely fantastic. He just switched off for that moment, squared himself up and a quick player will get in behind you. The boy Bingham finished very well.

“But it was a good win for us on the back of three tough games this week.

"At the end of a long season, it was always going to be a difficult game with Hamilton fighting to stay in the league and us fighting to ensure we get over the line as quick as we can."

Bain started the game ahead of Craig Gordon who featured in the midweek display against Dundee. With Bain ineligible for that one the Scotland internationalist returned to the fold following his two-month absence with injury, but he was not in the squad at all to face Accies.

The reasoning behind that was purely to exercise some caution with the stopper with Rodgers maintaining that there is no rush to get Gordon back, particularly given the artificial surface which Hamilton play on.

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“We just have to be aware with Craig Gordon,” said the Celtic manager. “There was no need to risk it after he was out. I protected him today. You have to be aware it's a surface you don't want to take any risks on.

"There has to be a certain thinking to ensure we have the fittest possible squad for next week.”

And while the game itself will tell Rodgers little that he doesn’t already know at this stage of the season, he will have been satisfied simply to tick it off on the to-do list.

The focus for this week now will be the build up to the semi-final game and with three fit strikers available, it will be interesting to see just how he sets his team out.

Sunday’s game at Hampden against Rangers will enable Celtic to take a further step towards an historic Treble but there is a feeling that the performance levels will need to rise from what they have been in recent outings.

Moussa Dembele looked off the pace against Accies, although in fairness the surface did not help him much. Griffiths did not start the game as Rodgers looked to protect the player on the artificial grass and it remains to be seen whether or not his goal has done enough to elevate him up the pecking order.

When Accies were reduced to ten-men – much to Accies’ chagrin – immediately before the break when Darren Lyon was dismissed for his second foul on Kieran Tierney, the expectation was that Celtic would kick up through the gears in the second half.

Griffiths added to the scoreline with a glancing header but other than that there was little to get overly excited about as a pedestrian game played itself out.

Read more: Hamilton Accies manager Martin Canning insists Kieran Tierney had a hand in getting Darren Lyon sent off​

Charly Musonda made a cameo appearance from the bench for the final minutes of the game and will be irked that he did not find the net with almost the last kick of the ball.

McGregor’s goal in the early minutes has taken his tally for the season to 9 – 6 of which have come on league duty. Interestingly, no-one in the Parkhead squad has hit double figures on league duty this season although Griffiths and Scott Sinclair are just one away from it.

That in itself has underlined the difference between this season and last although wherever there is a chance for silverware there is unlikely to be too much carping.

“At the back end of a long season and on a difficult surface, we just had to keep our positions, maintain our width, have good numbers inside and control any counter-attacks there may be,” said Rodgers afterwards.

“In terms of a spectacle, you could probably have done other things; it wasn’t the most entertaining but it was important for us to take the three points and now we’re nearly there.”