Leigh Griffiths came off the substitutes bench to fire Celtic to a 4-1 victory over Kilmarnock and take Ronny Deila’s side to 10 points away from the title.
A deflected cross from Darryl Westlake sent the home fans into a brief panic but within ten minutes the hoops were in front thanks to goals from Scott Brown and a hat-trick from Griffiths.
After drawing at Inverness on Saturday any further dropped points would have given Aberdeen encouragement in the title race but with six matches left for both sides Celtic hold a healthy eight point lead.
The first half came and went with little incident with the Kilmarnock defence comfortably holding Celtic at bay.
Celtic started the second half showing more urgency but the ground fell silent in the 50th minute when a cross from Westlake took a deflection and sailed over Craig Gordon into the net.
After a brief period of panic skipper Brown eased the pressure by barging his way to the edge of the penalty box and firing in an unstoppable shot past Craig Samon in the Killie goal.
Griffiths replaced James Forrest straight after the goal and only had to wait five minutes to find the net, sending a well placed header beyond Samson from 8 yards out after being picked out by a Kris Commons cross.
Eleven minutes from time Griffiths put the points beyond Killie with a stunning low drive from 25 yards out that went in off the post before Samson could make any attempt at stopping the shot.
The former Hibs striker completed his hat-trick in the 85th minute racing onto a long pass from Virgil van Dijk and placing a low drive across Samson into the net.