Hibs 0 - 5 Celtic :: Hoops Run Rings

It was self -evident that Celtic had come to the Capital to party, the celebrations beginning in the streets and bars of Leith long before the scheduled 3pm kick off. Rangers were naturally the target of the beery songs and banter as Easter Road became an unwelcome sea of West Coast party hats and conga lines. Any fears that Neil Lennon had of complacency in his team were quickly proved irrelevant; Celtic well and truly trounced Hibs, and never really had to move out of first gear to take home a convincing three points and extend their impressive SPL run to eighteen matches without defeat.

All the hard fought - or rather, hard-bought - defensive and midfield improvements Hibs had shown in the clean sheets of their last two home games completely evaporated, the bad habits returning, and with interest. Add in a couple of goalkeeping howlers, and, as Celtic substitute Ki Sung-Yeung proved in the 77th minute, you don't even need to kick the ball to score against Hibs these days, simply run into the box and the ball's in the net. Naturally, it was two ex-Hibernian players, Anthony Stokes and Scott Brown, who provided the most torment - one with the opening goal in the 13th minute, the other with his knack of winding up home players and fans alike, and somehow managing to keep referee Craig Thomson onboard with his antics.

A passionate performance from Hibs' man of the match midfielder Lewis Stevenson aside, very scant positives for the home support to take from the team's lacklustre performance; sad to say, this looks evermore like a team ready for relegation.