Leigh Griffiths scored on his first Scottish Premiership start of the season as Celtic eased to victory over Ross County.

Celtic stay 16 points behind Rangers, having played three fewer matches.

Bottom-of-the-table County battled diligently under new manager John Hughes but seldom threatened.

The clamour to remove Neil Lennon reached fever pitch following a League Cup defeat at home against County last month, but the pressure on the Celtic manager has eased in recent weeks.

Sunday’s dramatic Scottish Cup success completed a quadruple treble of trophies and the champions are now five games unbeaten in all competitions.

There were further signs of improvement in this one-sided contest, too. Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard were paired together up front, with the Frenchman given a freer role to go looking for the ball.

Both were lively, with Edouard shooting just wide in the first half and Griffiths squandering two good chances shortly before he got his goal.

That arrived on the hour when he was given time to steer home a delivery from the right from Christie.

Griffiths, who scored as an extra-time substitute and tucked in a shoot-out penalty against Hearts, had earlier delayed a good shooting opportunity, while Ross Laidlaw saved after an appalling back-pass from Iain Vigurs presented Griffiths with a one-on-one.

The breakthrough had come after 24 minutes when Jeremie Frimpong turned Josh Reid inside out before his cut-back from the bye-line was turned in by Turnbull.

County spent most of the time defending their own penalty area but did have one good sight of goal early on, when Ross Stewart glanced a header wide.

The visitors then lost their top scorer to injury before the interval and offered little in attack thereafter.

Man-of-the-match – David Turnbull

What did we learn?

Griffiths and Edouard have proven their prowess as a partnership before and, while the former was undoubtedly rusty, he got a valuable 80-minutes under his belt and tucked away his fifth goal of the season with a calm assurance.

With County sitting deep, Turnbull and Christie were busy as the champions looked for gaps in a packed defence, although some of the play out from the back remains a bit ponderous.

The home defence were rarely troubled but a clean sheet will be welcome and there were no signs of the panic witnessed at Hampden on Sunday and in several other outings this season.

What did they say?

Celtic manager Neil Lennon: “It’s another step in the right direction. I thought we should have won the game by a lot more but I’m very pleased with the freshness the boys who came in today brought to the team. The was a good zest about us.”

Ross County manager John Hughes: “Our organisation, the distances between players, our willingness to get stuck in and fight for the cause; I think that was evident. The disappointment is I’d like to have created more chances, laid a glove on them a little bit, and I’d like to have been better on the ball.”

What next?

Celtic visit Hamilton Academical on Boxing Day (15:00 GMT), while Ross County are at home to St Mirren (15:00) looking to end a run of 11 league games without victory.

Sourced From BBC