Celtic ease past Livingston as banned Brendan Rodgers watches from the stands

Brendan Rodgers watched from the stands as his Celtic side eased to a 3-0 win over struggling Livingston to return to the top of the cinch Premiership ahead of next Sunday's mouth-watering showdown with title rivals Rangers at Ibrox.

Serving a one-match touchline ban for comments made about the match officials following the 2-0 defeat at Hearts four weeks previously, the Hoops boss would have been mildly concerned at half-time as his side struggled to break down the stuffy Lions.

But an own goal early in the second period from Jamie Brandon broke the hosts’ resistance and further goals from substitute Paulo Bernardo and Matt O’Riley helped Celtic move a point above Gers, who have a game in hand.

The defeat left Livingston, who failed to threaten Joe Hart’s goal all afternoon, 10 points adrift of Ross County at the foot of the table with just seven games remaining.

The Lions, who had won only one of their previous 22 league matches, made three changes to the team that started the 3-0 defeat at Hibernian before the international break as Michael Nottingham, Mikey Devlin and Scott Pittman replaced Cristian Montano, David Carson and Joel Nouble.

There were two tweaks to the Celtic side that defeated St Johnstone last time out, with Liam Scales taking over from Stephen Welsh at centre-back and Bernardo dropping out to make way for influential Japanese midfielder Reo Hatate, who came in for his first Hoops appearance in almost three months after being sidelined by a calf problem.

The Hoops had most of the ball in the first half but struggled to create clear opportunities. Hatate pinged a shot just over the bar in the fifth minute after O’Riley’s corner picked him out unmarked just outside the box

An incisive move in the 24th minute