Fast start helps Celtic brush St Mirren aside
St Mirren 0 Celtic 3
Matt O'Riley provided a goal and assist inside the first six minutes as Celtic cruised to a 3-0 victory over 10-man St Mirren.
Daizen Maeda and Greg Taylor were also on target in Paisley as Celtic went into the cinch Premiership winter break eight points clear of Rangers, who have two games in hand.
Toyosi Olusanya was sent off in first-half stoppage-time after catching Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart in the face with a high boot.
It was deja vu for St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson, whose team received red cards in their previous home matches against both Celtic and Rangers.
While the previous dismissals changed the course of those games, Celtic were in command of this one from the very start.
The champions went ahead 56 seconds in after O'Riley collected Callum McGregor's forward pass and played the ball inside St Mirren wing-back Scott Tanser for Maeda to run onto and beat Zach Hemming.
O'Riley soon had his 10th league goal of the season. Luis Palma fed Paulo Bernardo's run into the box and the Portuguese midfielder spun past Alex Gogic and teed up O'Riley, who sidestepped Tanser and slotted through Hemming's legs.
Maeda put in some dangerous crosses from the right as Celtic continued to control the game. They had further chances from set-pieces with Maik Nawrocki unable to get on the end of Kyogo Furuhashi's flick-on and O'Riley heading beyond the far post.
St Mirren's only first-half effort was an off-target strike from Olusanya following a loose pass from Liam Scales. And a rare attack late in the half only worsened their situation.
Olusanya went in with a raised boot as Hart punched the ball clear and caught the Celtic goalkeeper in the face with his studs. Referee David Munro initially booked
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