St Mirren 0-3 Celtic: Maeda, O’Riley & Taylor score in comfortable win

Celtic scored twice in the opening six minutes on the way to beating St Mirren and maintaining their eight-point lead at the summit of the Scottish Premiership.

After neatly setting up the first, Matt O’Riley smartly tucked away the second. His wonderful first touch created the angle for Hemming to be nutmegged to round off a magnificent move.

The half couldn’t have started any worse for Stephen Robinson’s side and it ended in similar disappointment as Toyosi Olusanya was shown a red card after a VAR review after his boot caught Joe Hart’s face.

That decision made a tough test even tougher for the Paisley side and Greg Taylor’s second-half thunderous volley inflicted further misery.

Following Rangers’ early win against Kilmarnock, Celtic reclaimed their advantage, albeit having played two games more, while St Mirren remain in fifth, two points behind Derek McInnes’ side.

Backing up Saturday’s derby day victory was imperative for the league leaders, but against a St Mirren side who took an early lead the last time the sides met at Celtic Park, there were no guarantees the three points would come easy.

However, a speedy start settled any nerves among the away support. The quickest goal of the season for the champions was scored by Maeda, but it was all about the perfectly-weighted pass from O’Riley, making his 100th Celtic appearance.

The Denmark international had Paulo Bernardo to thank for the milestone being marked by a goal. The crafty Portuguese midfielder turned tremendously and teed up his team-mate in a classy move.

St Mirren failed to threaten, but pre-match Robinson had highlighted Olusanya’s pace as an asset in a game where opportunities would be few and far between.

On the rare occasion the ball made its way to Celtic goalmouth, the striker mistimed his attempt and instead caught Hart in the face. His initial yellow card was upgraded after David Munro was asked to take another look at the incident.

With a player advantage, Celtic’s speed and tempo was even more pronounced. Bernardo again provided a sensational assist, this time a dinked effort into the path for the left-back to slam home.

This came just minutes after the Portuguese had his own top-corner bound effort well saved by Hemming.

If it wasn’t for the St Mirren goalkeeper, the scoreline could have been much heavier. Substitutes Oh Hyeon-gyu, Yang Hyun-jun and Liel Abada were all denied, while Kyogo also headed wide when a goal appeared likely.

More to follow.