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Stuart Armstrong © Gallo Images
Celtic extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to five points as they got back to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over Partick Thistle on Wednesday.
Stuart Armstrong opened the scoring with a stunning strike in the 35th minute before Kieran Tierney settled any nerves as he fired home a second in the 67th minute.
It was the perfect response from the Scottish champions after their 69-match domestic unbeaten run came to an end with a 4-0 thrashing by Hearts on Sunday.
Victory in the rearranged fixture means the Hoops have now gone two calendar years without defeat at Celtic Park and guarantees them top spot at Christmas ahead of Aberdeen, who they host on Saturday.
“I thought tonight the players reacted very, very well. We had to be patient as Alan sets up his team very well and very organised so there wasn’t a lot of space,” Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said.
“We needed that wee bit of magic from Stuart and it was an absolute brilliant goal.”
Alan Archibald’s Thistle remain rooted to the bottom of the table — two points behind Ross County.
“We were disappointed in the manner we lost the first goal. It was a great strike but we should be tighter in the box,” the Partick manager said.
“I thought our ball retention was poor tonight. I have been here and lost heavily and played better than that.”
After their hammering by Hearts, Thistle expected a backlash from the Celtic players who had a point to prove.
However, those fears were unfounded in the opening 30 minutes when chances were few and far between, with the Hoops stars looking sluggish as they came up against a solid visiting defence.
It was Armstrong — one of three changes — who was the driving force behind Celtic in the early stages and it took at moment of magic from the Scotland international to open the scoring.
Tierney picked out Armstrong on the edge of the box and the midfielder took a couple of touches with his right foot to steady it before firing in a lovely left-foot shot into the opposite top corner.
The goal seemed to lift Celtic and Armstrong soon fired in another effort from further out but his low drive was easily gathered by Tomas Cerny.
French striker Odsonne Edouard was picked to lead the line for the home side ahead of regular forwards Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths.
However, it took until the hour for the 19-year-old to make a meaningful contribution as he forced a good save out of Cerny with a scuffed strike inside the area.
The Thistle keeper soon thwarted the on-loan Paris Saint-Germain forward again — this time as he connected well with a Scott Sinclair pass.
However, Cerny could do nothing to deny Celtic a second minutes later.
Armstrong picked out Tierney with a pass out to the left and the defender played a clever one-two with Sinclair before lashing a fierce strike over the head of the helpless keeper at his near post.
Tierney nearly forced an own goal from Thistle player Danny Devine moments later when the Jags skipper poked the defender’s shot narrowly by his own post.