Kieran Tierney scored his first goal since returning to Celtic as they comfortably beat Kilmarnock 4-0 to cut Hearts’ lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to seven points.
Johnny Kenny netted the opener with Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels also scoring to secure the victory in what could be Martin O’Neill’s final game in interim charge of the side.
After a disappointing display against Midtjylland in the Europa League, O’Neill made several changes to his starting line-up, including a debut for on-loan defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.
Hearts, who have now played a game more than the Hoops, were held 1-1 at home against Dundee United earlier on Sunday, providing the chance for Celtic to eat into the deficit.
A fifth consecutive Premiership defeat for Kilmarnock means they are now 10th.
No doubt for Hoops
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Celtic’s Johnny Kenny celebrates scoring to make it 1-0 against Kilmarnock
Celtic were quickly on top. Maeda shot over the bar from a decent chance before Kenny hit an opportunistic strike off the inside of a post.
The Irishman was soon on target, knocking home Reo Hatate’s cutback from close range after a costly slip by Robbie Deas as the defender looked set to deal with Marcelo Saracchi’s forward pass.
The Argentinian left-back soon joined Celtic’s injury list and was replaced by Tierney.
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Marcelo Saracchi looks set to join Celtic’s mounting list of injuries
Maeda made a mess of an open-goal opportunity after Eddie Beach spilled a shot from Sebastian Tounekti and Killie twice threatened before the break.
Anderson volleyed off the bar from a tight angle after latching on to a long ball and Scott Tiffoney’s strike was deflected over following David Watson’s break.
Maeda headed over before Kilmarnock paid the price for standing off Tierney.
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Arne Engels scored Celtic’s fourth from the penalty spot
Killie kept plugging away but could not carve out a clear chance and Maeda removed any doubt about the outcome in the 85th minute with his fourth goal of the season.
The Japan striker swept the ball inside the near post following a long-range through ball by substitute Engels.
The Belgium midfielder then converted a penalty in stoppage time after James Brown pulled back Hyun-Jun Yang.
‘Confidence-building’ performance
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Celtic interim boss Martin O’Neill addresses his future
Interim Celtic boss Martin O’Neill speaking to Sky Sports News:
“Great to win, great to score a few goals, and just a nice performance in terms of confidence building again.
“You could see what it meant to him [Kieran Tierney]. The lad has had so many injuries, what a player he would have been had he stayed injury free.
“That’s the nature of the game, and I think these injuries, you know, eventually it takes a toll of your confidence and things like this here, but when he came on, I thought he was self-assured, he took the goal brilliantly, and you could see bits of Kieran Tierney that you know why he was a terrific footballer.”
On Marcelo Sarrachi’s injury, O’Neill added: “They’re going down like ninepins really at the minute. Young Callum Osmand is out for a long time, so they’re just building up.”
The 73-year-old was also asked if Sunday was his last game: “It could very well be, I genuinely don’t know that at all, I’ll take a little time to reflect on the fortnight that I’ve had, and see where we go.
“If the board do decide that they want to appoint a manager in the next fortnight, that’s absolutely fine by me.”
Frustrating afternoon for Killie
Kilmarnock boss Stuart Kettlewell speaking to Sky Sports:
“The goals are avoidable.
“You know you’re playing against good players. At times, it has to be that real motivation to stay on top of things mentally as much as physically.
“We switch off, we’ve got opportunities to do better for all four goals today. You can see we’ve got four attackers on by the end of the game.
“You’re trying to see if you can get back in it at 2-0. But 84 minutes and 92 obviously has that indication that Celtic deserve to win the game, and I’m not arguing with that.
“But I felt that we had some decent spells and some decent moments in the game. You’ve got to hang in there longer than what we do and and you’ve got to capitalise on those seven corners, I think it was, we had.”