St J’stone 1 – 4 Celtic

Celtic restored their nine-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a comfortable 4-1 win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Andrew Considine’s own goal on 13 minutes put Celtic in front before Kyogo Furuhashi’s 22nd goal of the season doubled the visitors’ lead (22).

Drey Wright’s fine strike from distance halved the deficit (25) but Aaron Mooy’s superb finish re-established Celtic’s two-goal advantage before half-time (38).

St Johnstone struggled to test Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart throughout and their afternoon got even worse when Considine was sent off in stoppage time for bringing down substitute Hyeon-Gyu Oh on the edge of the box.

Fellow substitute David Turnbull then made it 4-1 to Celtic when he fired in Matt O’Riley’s pass from the resulting free-kick (90+3) to seal an emphatic victory for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

It was the perfect response to Rangers’ 2-1 win over Ross County on Saturday. As well as moving nine points clear of their rivals, Celtic are now unbeaten in 18 Scottish Premiership matches.

As for St Johnstone, the defeat leaves Callum Davidson’s side eighth in the table, seven points above the relegation zone.

More to follow…

What’s next?

The attention turns to the Scottish Cup for Celtic with a fifth-round tie at home to St Mirren on February 11. Kick-off 5.30pm.

St Johnstone are out of the competition and their next league match is away to Dundee United on February 18. Kick-off 3pm.