Celtic strengthened their title push with a comfortable but unspectacular 2-0 win over Partick Thistle to retain their seven point lead over Aberdeen who beat Inverness Caley Thistle.
Kris Commons and Stefan Johansen scored the goals either side of half time with Thistle’s hopes effectively ending when James Craigen was sent off in the incident that led to Commons opening the scoring from the penalty spot.
The hoops created four decent chances in the first ten minutes but the closest that they came to a breakthrough was when Virgil van Dijk flicked out a leg and sent a shot against the junction of post and crossbar.
After that flurry Thistle settled into the match and started to push Celtic back with Kallum Higginbotham forcing a good save out of Craig Gordon in the 20th minute.
Two minutes from the interval Celtic made the breakthrough with a double blow for Thistle that saw Craigen red carded for hauling down Stuart Armstrong as he burst into the box.
Despite Stefan Johansen successfully scoring from the penalty spot at St Mirren on Friday night Commons took responsibility and tucked his shot low past former Celt Scott Fox.
Despite being a man down Thistle opened the second half in lively fashion but their hopes of pulling off a shock died in the 63rd minute when Johansen slotted a low shot past Fox from a tight angle after the Thistle defence had been opened up down the left.
That goal allowed Ronny Deila to introduce James Forrest and Darnell Fisher down the right with Forrest only denied by the boot of Fox after being sent through one on one with the Thistle keeper.
Fifteen minutes from the end Leigh Griffiths replaced John Guidetti as he re-introduced his first choice striker ahead of Saturday’s visit to Inverness Caley Thistle.
