Accies had taken a surprise early lead through Richard Offiong but any hope they had of a shock win against the Scottish champions evaporated when Celtic were awarded a penalty shortly before half-time.

Television footage showed the foul on Cillian Sheridan took place outside the box but Martin Canning was dismissed for the challenge and Shunsuke Nakamura stepped up to convert from 12 yards.

Rock-bottom Hamilton were then denied a share of the points when Paul Hartley snatched victory for the league leaders with just four minutes to go.

"I'm proud but gutted as well," said Reid.

"To play like that against the SPL champions and come away with nothing is hard to take. I thought we were fantastic for the first 35 minutes only to be undone by another decision which has gone against us.

"TV evidence has proved it was outside the box, but that's the way it has been for us. When we played Rangers recently Kris Boyd scored an offside goal and that went against us. Two weeks ago Chris Porter scored and was clearly offside.

"I hear and read so much about decisions going against teams and it is definitely going against Hamilton at the moment.

"The referee awarded a free-kick and then the assistant referee got involved. There is nothing wrong with that and if assistant refs are sure they have got it right then I'm for it.

"But, you have to make the right decision and he has called it wrong."

Reid also disputed whether Canning should have seen red, adding: "I don't know if it is a sending off either.

"I just wonder if it had been at the other end and my player got tugged, would we have got a penalty and Celtic got a player sent off. I'll leave that with you."

When quizzed about the penalty incident - which appeared to be awarded on the advice of assistant referee Chris Young - Celtic boss Gordon Strachan said: "I just know it's a penalty.

"Football can be harsh at times. I've been on the end of harsh decisions and you have to deal with it."

He added: "I thought Hamilton were terrific. Their performance in the first half especially was excellent and we didn't have enough in our locker to break them down.

"They had plenty of energy and we had to do something at half-time to make it better. We did that and things were better in the second half.

"Unfortunately for Hamilton, they're down to 10 men. We still made hard work of it but because of our fitness and they're down to 10 men, that helped us and we created chances.

"All credit to Hamilton, they were a credit to the club and their manager."

Scott McDonald was forced to withdraw a couple of hours before kick-off with a virus and Strachan confirmed he will not travel to Bahrain to represent Australia in midweek.

He said: "He won't fly, it's impossible with the virus to get on a plane and be in that restricted area for that amount of time and then go out in the heat and try and train. He is weak as it is.

"He wanted to try to give it a go but I thought it was better to have people fully fit here and I was right.

"We had a team picked and we had to change it two hours before the game. That doesn't matter - we had enough out there to do better.

"But I wish you wouldn't ask me about my players because it takes a lot away from Hamilton.

"I'm not trying to deflect it away from us, I think it would be fair for me to sit and talk about how he didn't play well and he didn't come up the standard but Hamilton came up to the standard of the Premier League."