Relentless Celtic brushed Kilmarnock aside 3-1 as they stretched their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to seven points over St Mirren and moved 10 clear of Rangers A scintillating display by Brendan Rodgers side at Parkhead saw Japanese playmaker Reo Hatate mark a superb return to form with a stunning solo opening goal midway through the first half.

Honduran winger Luis Palma netted his second league goal in consecutive matches to make it 2-0 with a dipping long range effort on 33 minutes and the hosts really ought to have been home and hosed.

Kilmarnock stunned the men in green and white when David Watson reduced the arrears on 72 minutes but former Rugby Park defender Greg Taylor restored the two-goal advantage when he stabbed home from close range with eight minutes left on the clock.

The scoreline did not truly really reflect Celtic's superiority throughout the contest on a day when there was lots to enthuse about in Glasgow's east end despite the wretched wet and miserable weather.

Rodgers singled out Hatate's blistering display and he hailed Irish defender Liam Scales as one of the surprises of his managerial career.

READ MORE: Rodgers on 'biggest surprise of my career' Celtic star

The Northern Irishman said: "Reo needed a performance like that. With him it is all about intensity and workrate. When he works to that level and intensity he is a fantastic player. When he is slow and his pressing is slow he does not have the same dynamism. He was outstanding today and he scored a great goal and he could have had at least one more. He was very creative and his pressing was good and his quality was good and he was outstanding.

"Liam was outstanding and I am so happy for him. He is probably one of the biggest surprises for me in my career as a coach and only because I had not seen him play so much and there were other players ahead of him. Through one leaving and one being injured, I have seen enough in training to give him an opportunity.

"You ideally want a left-sided centre-back in your team who has good pace and intelligence and he has all of that. You can see in his performances that he has really grown as a player and I am so happy for him because there is a big focus on the Irish players when they come here but he has been outstanding."

Join Tony Haggerty and Ryan McGinlay in the video below as they discuss Celtic's victory over Kilmarnock.