Nicolas Kuhn strikes twice as Celtic beat St Mirren to move 13 points clear

Celtic extended their lead over Rangers at the top of the William Hill Premiership to 13 points with a routine 3-0 home win over St Mirren.

Brendan Rodgers' side suffered a stinging 3-0 defeat by their Old Firm rivals at Ibrox on Thursday and the start of the game retained remnants of that struggle until the 33rd minute when star German winger Nicolas Kuhn swept in the opener.

Two minutes before the break returning United States defender Auston Trusty headed in a second for his first Celtic goal since signing from Sheffield United in the summer.

It was all relatively straightforward as Kuhn notched his second in the 68th minute for his fifth goal in five games and 16 in total for the season.

Any notion of a credible title race following the defeat at Ibrox was far fetched but Celtic’s return to winning ways against a Buddies side who worked hard but never looked like they could spring a shock, has the Parkhead men back in what is probably an unassailable position, with Rangers dropping points again in a 3-3 draw at Hibernian earlier in the day.

Changes from the trip to Govan were expected given the paucity of Celtic’s performance, albeit it was their first domestic defeat since last March.

Rodgers recalled Trusty, Arne Engels, Luke McCowan and Adam Idah, with Liam Scales, Paulo Bernardo, Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi among the substitutes.

St Mirren had lost their previous two games to Dundee and Kilmarnock, but were having a generally good season.

Goalkeeper Zach Hemming, joined on a second loan spell from Middlesbrough ahead of the trip to Parkhead and he took over from loanee Ellery Balcombe, who was recalled by parent club Brentford.

Mark O’Hara, Greg Kiltie, Caolan Boyd-Munce and Elvis Bwomono also came into a Saints side