Watch Celtic score the goals that kill off Hibs’ hopes
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For an hour or so the big build-up from Terry Butcher was justified as the Edinburgh side pushed and probed at Celtic putting the clean-sheet record under pressure.
Two months after Niall McGinn equalised for Aberdeen at Parkhead the Celtic defence found that they had work to do but restricted Hibs to mainly long range efforts.
Behind the defence Fraser Forster was in top form, growing in confidence as the match developed almost daring the Hibs forwards to hit him with their best efforts.
After 66 minutes Sam Stanton looked to have made the breakthrough. Creating space for himself inside the penalty box he gave it everything with a left foot shot aimed at the postage stamp corner.
The Hibs support were almost out of their seats to greet an equaliser but from almost nowhere Forster threw a hand at the ball and pushed it round the woodwork for a corner.
That moment seemed to break Hibs’ resolve. Ten minutes later as they moaned over a booking for Michael Nelson they lost concentration as Virgil van Dijk put another stamp onto his cv.
The calmest defender in Scotland stepped up to take a 25 yard free kick and with minimal effort clipped the ball over the wall and under the crossbar to double Celtic’s lead.
A few minutes later substitute Teemu Pukki got in on the act with a blistering diagonal shot past Williams from a Joe Ledley pass as the away fans celebrated while the home supporters started to shuffle home.
In the final minute Pukki was barged to the ground by Alan Mayburry with Commons doing a Tommy Gemmell impersonation as he smashed the ball into the net.
With two home matches against Kilmarnock and St Mirren over the coming week Celtic can stretch their lead at the top of the table as title number three starts to come within sight.