Celtic thrash St Johnstone 7-0 to tighten grip on Scottish Premiership title

Celtic tightened their grip on the Premiership title yet further with a 7-0 thrashing of second-­bottom St Johnstone at Parkhead.

Goals from Reo Hatate, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Daizen Maeda gave the relentless home side an ­unassailable interval lead. Josip Juranovic added a fourth from the spot early in the second half and Matt O’Riley scored twice in three minutes before fellow substitute Liel Abada thrashed in a seventh as the home side ran amok.

Ange Postecoglou’s side moved nine points ahead of second-placed Rangers, who face St Mirren in Paisley on Sunday with the pressure firmly on.

Celtic have not lost a domestic game since a 1-0 defeat at Livingston in September and show no signs of slipping up in their bid to bring the league title back to the east end of Glasgow. The one downside for Celtic fans ahead of next week’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden Park was the sight of Giakoumakis limping off soon after he scored, but Maeda demonstrated his versatility and Kyogo Furuhashi’s keenly-awaited return is timely.

The news that the Japan forward was in the squad for the first time since he aggravated a hamstring injury on Boxing Day gave the home supporters a boost, while Postecoglou started with the same team he chose for last week’s league win at Ibrox.

Defenders James Brown and Callum Booth and on-loan Rangers winger Glen Middleton returned for the visitors, who were unbeaten in three matches.

However, it took only eight minutes for Celtic to start their scoring spree. The visitors never really cleared their lines after goalkeeper Zander Clark saved Hatate’s close-range drive and, when the ball was recycled, the Japanese midfielder swept in a shot from 16 yards.

Moments later, Clark did well to