THE CELTIC WAHEY

Rodgers Bhoys at brilliant best to seal title in style

- KEITH JACKSON

THERE might have been moments along the way when they looked like the best of a pretty average bunch.

So it was quite fitting then that Celtic should cross the finishing line last night having rediscovered all their old swagger and style at a place where they had stumbled back when they weren't quite feeling like themselves.

They didn't just wrap up a third successive top-flight title in Kilmarnock - they looked and played like true champions sweeping their hoodoo team aside and romping to the victory which finally puts this roller coaster of a campaign to bed.

Goals from Adam Idah, Daizen Maeda and James Forrest had Celtic 3-0 up by half time and even though the opener was hotly disputed by the home side, the overall contest was not.

No, this was a good old fashioned steam rollering and, if anything, the beating could have been a great deal more savage.

It began with an emotional tribute to Tommy Burns, 16 years to the day of his death, but that was as warm and fuzzy as relations were to get on a night when the Hoops turned in the kind of rampant performance which would have so pleased the great man.

They were stone cold killers out there, as they took Kilmarnock apart.

Piece by piece. Goal after goal.

None more so than the outstanding Matt O'Riley who provided the fireworks in the second half with two further goals - the first one of which had to be seen in the flesh to understand its full, breathtaking beauty.

And it all crowned a glorious night for boss Brendan Rodgers who was serenaded from the doting fans in the away end as if this relationship had never broken down in the first place.

Rodgers, not unexpectedly, took the if-it-ain't-brokedon't-fix-it-approach.