Hartson hits four and puts O’Neill on the spot

Celtic 7 Aberdeen 0

Hartson was drafted in as Sutton was employed in the middle of midfield, with Paul Lambert and Neil Lennon on the sidelines.

He will get further chances to impress in the CIS Cup against Partick Thistle next week and against Dundee United to be in the starting 11 for the return leg of the UEFA Cup tie in Lancashire.

But Larsson also kept his own scoring record ticking along nicely - after becoming Scotland’s all-time top scorer in Europe - by hitting the net for his 20th goal of the current campaign. Goals by Bobo Balde and Shaun Maloney completed the rout.

After a sluggish start, Hartson ended the frustration of the home fans when he opened the scoring in the 26th minute.

Thompson did well to pick out Steve Guppy on the left and the Englishman swung an inviting cross into the box for the Welshman to head past the outstretched hand of David Preece.

Celtic became a different team after that goal and just nine minutes later the striker doubled his and the home side’s tally.

Larsson sprung the offside trap to run onto Guppy’s through ball and he centred for Hartson to side-foot past Preece from close range.

Larsson added to his own tally just two minutes before the break as he curled a right-foot free-kick up and over the wall and past Preece.

Douglas was also having a good day and he pushed away Bisconti’s strike after Sylla had slipped, before Hartson completed his hat-trick in glorious fashion.

Thompson picked out the striker at the back post and he steered his effort over the keeper and into the net.

Such was the home side’s dominance that even Balde got on the scoresheet when he unleashed a low right-foot shot from wide of the box into the bottom corner.

Hartson was not finished and he scored another in the 80th minute from Sylla’s cut back.

Maloney did his best to grab the headlines by cracking a brilliant long-range free-kick into the top corner with just five minutes left.

But not even that could steal Hartson’s thunder as once again he left O’Neill with a massive selection headache to contend with.

CELTIC: Douglas, Valgaeren, Balde, Laursen (Fernandez 72), Sylla, Petrov (Crainey 72), Sutton, Thompson (Maloney 72), Guppy, Larsson, Hartson.

ABERDEEN: Preece, McGuire, Deloumeaux, Anderson, McAllister, Rutkiewicz (Billio 74), Darren Young, Derek Young (Tiernan 66), Bisconti (Mike 66), Fabiano, Michie.

Referee: H Dallas (Scotland).