Gary Hooper hit a hat-trick as Celtic demolished St Mirren 5-0 in the Scottish Premier League on Saturday.
Georgios Samaras and young substitute Dylan McGeough were also on target as the Bhoys moved to within four points of league leaders and city rivals Rangers, the Buddies having no answer as they were well beaten at Celtic Park.
Samaras opened the scoring after just four minutes. Joe Ledley’s pass was not great, but St Mirren’s Marc McAusland fluffed his attempted clearance and the ball fell to the feet of Samaras who drove to the net from the edge of the area, albeit through the hands of the underperforming Craig Samson.
Samson was picking the ball out of his net for a second time in the eighth minute. Anthony Stokes was fed by Samaras and the Irishman crossed for the unmarked Hooper to easily tap in his first at the back post, in spite of in vain offside calls from the Buddies defenders.
There were no more goals before the break, despite chances for James Forrest and Stokes, who had an effort chalked off for offside.
By the 57th minute, however, it was 4-0 with Hooper completing parts two and three of his hat-trick in a five-minute spell.
The first of them came in the 23rd. Victor Wanyama put Stokes away down the left before the ex-Sunderland attacker cut the ball back for Hooper. He sold Lee Mair before finding Samson’s net from close range.
And he soon had possession rights on the match ball, his third coming after good interplay between himself and Forrest allowed him clear to dink the ball over Samson from within 12 yards.
McGeough was introduced with 25 minutes to play and soon put any qualms the home fans might have had about him being a former Rangers youth player to bed with a wonderful solo goal - his first for the club.
The youngster stole the ball from Kenny McLean inside his own half, danced past Jim Goodwin, kept advancing and then drove low beyond Samson as Stokes took a couple of defenders out of the picture.