Leigh Griffiths was given the last half hour of Celtic’s 3-1 win over Hibs and made a big impact in his first outing of the season.
After a spell in ‘solitary’ while the first team was in France the attitude and condition of the Scotland striker impressed Neil Lennon enough to bring him back into the fold.
Shortly before half time Karamoko Dembele equalised for Celtic but it was the last half hour that will have interested the Celtic boss most.
Griffiths replaced Ewan Henderson to team up with Patryk Klimala and almost scored within a minute of coming on but the Hibs keeper was quick off the mark to clear the danger.
With 11 minutes left to play Griffiths made space on the left, dinked his shot over the keeper with Klimala applying the final touch with the ball on its way into the net.
Celtic had dominated possession throughout the second half but it wasn’t until the 82nd minute that the game was put beyond Hibs when Klimala headed home at the back post from a Griffiths corner on the right.
Karamoko, Stephen Welsh, Scott Robertson all showed that they are ready for the step up but it’ll be the options thrown up by the two strikers that will have pleased Lennon with six days to go till the SPFL opener at home to Hamilton on Sunday.
CELTIC: Hazard; Ralston, Elhamed, Welsh, McInroy (Connell 46); Robertson, Soro; Karamoko, Ntcham Henderson (Griffiths 57); Klimala.
Sub: Doohan