Celtic enjoy stroll in the astro park at Pars

Dunfermline 0 Celtic 3

Celtic striker John Hartson helped himself to a deadly double to send the Tennent’s Scottish Cup holders into the fifth round of the competition at Dunfermline’s expense – and steal the headlines from Craig Bellamy.

Controversial striker Bellamy has been the talk of Celtic following his loan move after a spat with Graeme Souness at Newcastle.

Having been left out through fear of reigniting his past knee injury problems, his Wales team-mate Hartson crashed through the 20-goal barrier for the season.

Hartson’s current strike partner Chris Sutton also scored as the Hoops ran out easy winners at East End Park.

O’Neill did hand January-signing Stephane Henchoz his debut but had to play out of position in an unaccustomed full-back role as he replaced Jackie McNamara, and his defence was under pressure early on.

After just 20 seconds Robert Douglas came charging out of his box only to miss his kick but Dunfermline were – not for the first time – too slow to capitalise.

Under-fire manager Davie Hay not surprisingly made three changes from the team which slumped to defeat at Inverness last week with Scott Wilson, Darren Young and Greg Ross coming in for Aaron Labonte, Gary Dempsey and Noel Hunt.

But their hopes of springing a cup shock went up in smoke as early as the eighth minute when the visitors went ahead with their very first real attack.

Aiden McGeady played the ball to Sutton, who shrugged off his marker to fire the ball low across the face of goal for Hartson to sidefoot it into the corner of the net with Andrius Skerla found wanting and Derek Stillie cruelly exposed.

The game was effectively over just two minutes later when the Dunfermline defence were once again punished for more slack play.

Hartson crashed the ball against the woodwork with Stillie well beaten and Sutton reacted quicker than the home side to force the rebound home from close range.

Stillie was kept busy all afternoon, and on the 22nd-minute mark when he threw himself to his left to keep out Alan Thompson’s free-kick from 30 yards.

The Pars’ stopper again came to his rescue on the half-hour when rejuvenated defender Ulrik Laursen put Thompson through with a great ball over the top of the bemused Ross, but the goalkeeper kept the midfielder’s low left-foot shot out with his feet.

But the game was over a minute before the break when Hartson emphatically fired home after Sutton had flicked on Thompson’s free-kick for his 21st goal of the campaign.