Celtic stroll as champs eye another title

Celtic closed in on another Scottish Premiership title on Friday after a 2-0 win at struggling St Mirren moved the defending champions eight points clear at the top.

Ronny Deila`s side made a spluttering start to the season under their new manager, but the Glasgow giants have hit their stride in recent months and look odds-on to retain the Scottish crown.

James Forrest finally broke St Mirren`s stubborn resistence midway through the second half when he finished off a fine move from close range.

And when Forrest`s drive was handled by St Mirren defender Victor Genev for a penalty in the 80th minute, Stefan Johansen slotted in the spot-kick to widen the gap over second-placed Aberdeen with nine games remaining.

Bottom of the table St Mirren remain four points behind Motherwell, whom they play on Tuesday after the Steelmen face Kilmarnock on Saturday.

"St Mirren were defending very deep and very brave. It was difficult to break them down," Deila said.

"We were patient but were not clinical enough, but it was a fantastic first goal.

"After that, we controlled the game and I don`t think they had a chance.

"James Forrest had a hard time against the full-back, but we were not going to take him off.

"We have been patient with him and we are getting the reward for it."

Forrest, Kris Commons, Adam Matthews and Anthony Stokes returned to Celtic`s starting line-up as Efe Ambrose, Gary Mackay-Steven, Nir Bitton and John Guidetti all started on the bench.

Celtic had picked up 13 wins and a draw in their last 14 league matches against St Mirren and the visitors were quickly on top again.

After Stokes dragged an early drive wide, Commons had three attempts at making the breakthrough.

The first was saved by Mark Ridgers at the near post, the second hit the side-netting and he should have scored the third when he fired straight at the St Mirren goalkeeper.

Meanwhile, in the Celtic goal, Craig Gordon had been all but redundant until just before the half-hour mark when he stretched to save a Stephen Mallan header.

Ridgers then denied Forrest after he had been set up by Commons, but St Mirren couldn`t hold on past the 64th minute.

Scott Brown took the ball from Commons and quickly threaded a pass through a packed penalty area to Adam Matthews.

When Matthews cut the ball back, Forrest bundled it past Ridgers to break the deadlock.

The points were sealed when referee Alan Muir pointed to the spot after Genev was adjudged to have handled Forrest`s shot, with Johansen confidently knocking the penalty past Ridgers to keep the Scottish League Cup winners on course for the treble.