SPL round-up: Celtic opened a six-point lead in the Scottish Premier League with an emphatic 4-1 defeat of Dundee United. The champions are also 10 points clear of arch-rivals Rangers who went down to a shock 1-0 home defeat by Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura hit a hat-trick as Celtic moved to 25 points from 10 games. Second-placed Hearts, who have 19, play Hibernian tomorrow. Rangers are third on 15 points, level with Kilmarnock, who beat Aberdeen 1-0, and one point ahead of Thistle and St Mirren.
Dundee United took a shock lead after six minutes when Noel Hunt lashed in a low shot from just inside the box. They then passed up a great chance to make it 2-0 when Barry Robson screwed a 10-metre shot wide from a cut back by Trinidad and Tobago forward Collin Samuel after 18 minutes.
Nakamura made them pay for that miss a minute from the interval, forcing the ball in at the back post to equalise.
The Japan player then stabbed home a knee-high shot three minutes into the second half and helped set up the killer third with a pass to Shaun Maloney who released Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink to fire a low shot after 53 minutes.
Nakamura completed his hat-trick after 58 minutes when he side-footed a shot into the top left hand corner from a pass by Czech Jiri Jarosik.
"(Nakamura) is a top, top player. He really is," Celtic manager Gordon Strachan enthused afterwards. "But probably his first 30 minutes today was his lowest productive start since he has been here and then he has a half hour where he is just untouchable."
Thistle's Graham Bayne scored the only goal at Ibrox, scrambling the ball home after French keeper Lionel Letizi could only parry Craig Dargo's shot in the 72nd minute.
