St Mirren 0-5 Celtic: Wanyama grabs two in rout for champions

The victory comes as a welcome boost to Neil Lennon as his side prepare for the daunting trip to Spain on Tuesday to face Barcelona in the Champions League.

Celtic raced into a first-half lead thanks to Hooper, Ambrose and Wanyama before Watt added a fifth after the break.

The home side made a single change from the side that lost to St Johnstone, with David Barron replacing Sam Parkin. Their opponents, with their European clash looming, made five changes, with Adam Matthews, Lassad, Beram Kayal, Joe Ledley and Watt coming in for Emilio Izaguirre, Mikael Lustig, Kris Commons, James Forrest and Georgios Samaras.

Neil Lennon's side took the lead after 15 minutes as Kayal played in Lassad on the right-hand side and he played the ball across the penalty area for Hooper to stroke the ball home from two yards out.

The advantage was doubled two minutes later, with a helping hand from St Mirren keeper Craig Samson, as he spilled a flick-on by Wanyama after a Charlie Mulgrew free-kick, allowingAmbrose to slam home his first goal for the Parkhead outfit.

Just after the half-hour mark all three points were secured for the SPL champions as Matthews' corner from the right-wing deflected off Paul Dummett and landed at the feet of Wanyama. The Kenyan made no mistake, firing the ball into the St Mirren net.

Things kept getting worse for the Paisley side as Wanyama received the ball nearly 30 yards out after a pass from Watt and opened up his body to curl the ball beyond the helpless Samson for his second of the game.

St Mirren started the second half much better with Stephen Thompson having a couple of chances and Graham Carey sending one effort goalwards, but neither of them could find a way past Celtic keeper Fraser Forster, who had been untroubled until that point.

Celtic were still on the prowl for more goals as Kayal forced a save from Samson and Ledley had an effort which just went wide of the St Mirren goalkeeper's left-hand post.

With five minutes left the visitors claimed their fifth of the game as the impressive Watt got his head onto a cross from the left-wing by substitute Izaguirre to help the league leaders claim their biggest victory of the season so far ahead of the mammoth test that faces them in Catalonia.

source : goal.com