St Mirren were beaten at Celtic Park as a double from Nicolas Kuhn, either side of an Auston Trusty header, saw the hosts win 3-0 in the William Hill Premiership.
Saints were organised in the opening part of the match, but their resistance was broken a little after the half hour mark when Kuhn opened the scoring with Trusty adding a second before the interval. Kuhn rounded off the scoring in second-half to see the points remain in Glasgow.
Stephen Robinson made five changes from Thursday's loss at Kilmarnock. Zach Hemming started in goals after returning to the club on loan on Friday with Ellery Balcombe recalled by Brentford. Elvis Bwomono, Mark O'Hara, Caolan Boyd-Munce and Greg Kiltie also came in while Alex Iacovitti, Oisin Smyth, Roland Idowu and Jonah Ayunga dropped to the bench.
Celtic, who lost their first league match of the season on Thursday when they were beaten 3-0 by Rangers, started quickly and looked to hit Saints on the break in the opening minute of the game. Kuhn tried to race away from the Buddies defence, but he was closely marshalled by Alex Gogic and Richard Taylor who denied the German a shooting opportunity. The hosts would win a corner from it though from which Adam Idah came close to an early goal when he headed Arne Engels' delivery just wide of the right-hand post.
Saints were well structured and looked fairly comfortable as they kept Celtic at bay. The closest the hosts came to opening the scoring in the opening 30 minutes was when Engels almost netted directly from a corner, with Hemming at full stretch to push over.
The home side found a breakthrough on 33 minutes when Kuhn opened the scoring. Daizen Maeda just beat the offside trap to race down the left channel before rolling the ball along the face of goal to Kuhn who slotted the ball under Hemming to make it 1-0.
The Buddies kept probing and had a decent opportunity to level when Toyosi Olusanya did well down the right-hand channel. He had Kiltie in a good area for the cut-back, but took the ball a step too far before sending into the box where Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel claimed.
Celtic doubled their advantage 10 minutes after their opener when Engels' corner met the head of Auston Trusty who nodded home.
Hemming made a good save with his feet early in the second-half to turn away an Engels effort that was deflected goalward by Idah.
Stephen Robinson made a triple change just after the hour mark with the introduction of Smyth, Ayunga and Owen Oseni in place of O'Hara, Kiltie and Olusanya. The Buddies best opportunity to reduce the deficit came just a few minutes later when a Smyth corner met Taylor, but his deflected header was pushed over by Schmeichel.
Celtic almost immediately went 3-0 ahead when they broke from the resulting Saints corner. Luke McCowan sent Kuhn scuttling away from Marcus Fraser, but Hemming did well to block the attempt. However, just seconds later, Callum McGregor's cross into the box found Engels. His backheel caused a mix up in the Saints defence in which Hemming couldn't gather as he collided with Fraser who looked to clear the ball. That allowed Kuhn to slot home his second and Celtic's third from close range.
Idah thought he'd added a fourth for Celtic five minutes later when, on 73 minutes, he tucked home after his initial effort struck the the bar, but he was flagged offside.
Saints substitute Ayunga had a big opportunity to add a consolation in the final minute when he outmuscled Cameron Carters-Vickers, but his effort was blocked by Schmeichel.
Full-Time: Celtic 3-0 St Mirren
St Mirren: Hemming, Fraser, Gogic, Taylor, Bwomono, O'Hara (c) (Smyth 62), Boyd-Munce (Idowu 83), Phillips, Tanser (John 84), Kiltie (Oseni 62), Olusanya (Ayunga 62)
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, Iacovitti, Mandron, Mooney
Celtic: Schmeichel, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Taylor, McGregor (c), Engels, McCowan (Hatate 70), Kuhn (Yang 70), Idah (Furuhashi 83), Maeda (Palma 83)
Subs Not Used: Sinisalo, Scales, Valle, Bernardo, Ralston
Referee: Grant Irvine
Assistant Referee: Jonathan Bell
Assistant Referee: Graham McNeillie
Fourth Official: Graham Grainger
VAR: Andrew Dallas
