Boss Lennon hungry for more as Celts retain title

Partick Thistle 1 Celtic 5

Ireland’s Anthony Stokes headed the visitors into the lead in the third minute before 17-year-old sub Liam Henderson, on for right-back Adam Matthews, opened his Celtic account in the 49th minute with a low drive from 12 yards.

Norwegian midfielder Stefan Johansen added a third goal in the 53rd minute to confirm the superiority of Neil Lennon’s side, who responded to losing a late goal to Jags substitute Christie Elliott by scoring two more in injury-time. Stokes grabbed his second, rifling a shot into the top corner, before Kris Commons grabbed the fifth as the party began.

“The Champions League this year took a bit out of us as well but we wanted to stay focused on being consistent in the league and we’ll come back next year and try and improve on our league form and certainly our cup form as well,” said Lennon.

PARTICK: Gallacher, O’Donnell, Piccolo, Mair, Sinclair, Erskine (Elliot 63), Fraser, Higginbotham (Lawless 70), Buaben, Bannigan, Taylor (Doolan 78).

CELTIC: Forster, Matthews (Henderson 46), Ambrose, van Dijk, Izaguirre, Commons, Brown, Mulgrew (Kayal 71), Johansen, Stokes, Griffiths (Samaras 77).

Ref: Steven McLean (Scotland).