A victory that became so routine it could have been mistaken for the first team against the youth side laid the Parkhead club's St Johnstone bogey, Celtic having lost twice to the Perth side earlier this season.

It was a personal triumph for the much-maligned Harald Brattbakk, who marked his first start in the top team since November 3rd with a hat-trick. He had plenty of help from the ever-impressive Henrik Larsson.

Brattbakk opened the scoring after only six minutes. The Norwegian received a curling centre from Lubomir Moravcik on the right and, at the far post, pulled the ball from right foot to left and shot past Alan Main from six yards, although it seemed to take a deflection off John McQuillan.

Moravcik scored the second 13 minutes later with a characteristic piece of virtuosity. Larsson gathered Alan Stubbs's long ball out of defence and stunned it to the Slovakian who shimmied into space and sent a beautifully controlled 18-yard, right-foot drive to the left of Main.

Larsson was next up in the 31st minute, heading home from six yards after Brattbakk had a shot blocked and Phil O'Donnell had two attempts, the second of them coming back off the bar, before the Norwegian headed the ball across the face of goal to the Swede.

With such a telling lead established before the interval, the comparative lethargy of much of the second half was predictable.

But the 60,092 crowd were out of their seats again when Brattbakk completed his hat-trick in the space of two minutes. Both were supplied by Larsson, the first in the 76th minute after the Swede had received Stubbs's perceptive pass through the middle and dinked it forward. Brattbakk slipped it past the advancing Main with his left foot. Next it was O'Donnell's pass that saw Larsson drag the ball wide of Main and McQuillan on the left and allowed Brattbakk a tap-in with his precise cut-back.

Celtic remain third in the table, 13 points behind Rangers, 4-2 winners over Aberdeen on Saturday, with Kilmarnock second, four points ahead of Josef Venglos' side. Celtic and Kilmarnock have a game in hand.

Celtic: Gould, Boyd, Mahe (Hannah 73), Stubbs, Larsson, Brattbakk, O'Donnell (Blinker 79), Lambert, Moravcik, Riseth (Donnelly 84), Mjallby. Subs Not Used: Burchill, Corr. Booked: Mjallby, Moravcik, Lambert. Goals: Brattbakk 6, 76, 78, Moravcik 19, Larsson 31.

St Johnstone: Main, McQuillan, Kernaghan, Scott, O'Neil, Kane (Griffin 82), McMahon (Connolly 68), Bollan, O'Halloran, Dods, Simao. Subs Not Used: Grant, Robertson, McAnespie. Booked: O'Neil, Kernaghan. Att: 60,092.

Referee: J Rowbotham (Kirkcaldy).