The opening goal came on 13 minutes after Considine turned a Kyogo cross into his own box, while the Japanese striker netted his 22nd goal of the campaign not long after that.

And although St Johnstone did reduced the deficit with a good strike from Drey Wright, Celtic soon restored their two-goal advantage.

Kyogo was involved again, combining with Jota before the Portuguese winger played a ball over the defence and into the path of Aaron Mooy who coolly chipped the goalkeeper.

David Turnbull’s late free-kick to make it 4-1 was the icing on the cake for the Scottish champions.

“The quality Kyogo has is not just about the end product, it’s about everything else he brings to the game,” said the manager.

“He’s constantly moving and today I thought he was important to us because we had a feeling that we wouldn’t get too much space out wide because of the tightness of the pitch, and being able to link up through him – I thought he and Aaron in particular linked up really well, and Jota on that side, so it was good to see.

“I don’t think he’s ever waned in confidence and there are very few periods when he hasn’t scored goals. For us, what’s important is his overall contribution.

“He never goes out there with any other thought than giving it absolutely everything for the team, and the goals are a consequence of him working really, really hard for the team effort, and it’s a credit to him.

“It was quality play from quality players,” the manager said of Mooy’s goal. “You look at a pitch like this and it can be very easy to fall into the trap of just thinking you can’t play our football.

“The lads did the hard bits in the game, but then, when we needed the quality and the technical ability, they had that as well, and it was a great goal.”

Manager: Players rose to the challenge and produced a good performance