Hooper proves his worth in Celtic cruise

Celtic 4 Dundee Utd 0

Lennon tinkered with his side with defender Thomas Rogne, midfielder Beram Kayal and striker Lassad Nouioui coming in for Adam Matthews, Brown and Kris Commons, the latter out of the squad altogether with a rib injury.

Before kick-off Lennon confirmed striker Hooper had turned down a contract offer while also revealing that the club had turned down another offer from Norwich after rejectinga bid, reported to be about £5 million, for the 24-year-old last week.

Hooper, who has 18 months left on his current deal, showed why he is attracting increasing interest when he converted a Georgios Samaras pass in the 19th minute.

The lead was doubled when Charlie Mulgrew’s corner was cleared out to Mikael Lustig and when he swung a cross to the back post the unmarked Victor Wanyama powered a header back across goal and into the net.

Celtic remained in control in the second half.

Former Scunthorpe striker Hooper struck again 10 minutes from time to take his tally to 22 before he set up substitute Scott Brown for the fourth as United, whose boss Peter Houston will leave at the end of the season, were left thankful that their defeat had not been more demoralising.

CELTIC: Zaluska, Lustig (Matthews 73), Rogne, Mulgrew, Izaguirre, Kayal (Brown 61), Wanyama, Ledley, Samaras, Hooper, Nouioui (Stokes 82).

DUNDEE UTD: Cierzniak, Watson, Dillon, Gunning, Douglas, Flood, Millar (Armstrong 51), Rankin, Mackay-Steven (Skacel 71), Russell, Daly.

Ref: Euan Norris (Scotland).