THREE stands, three goals, one helluva beating. Celtic took over Perth last night as St Johnstone laid out the welcome mat both on and off the pitch for the visitors. Oliver Ntcham’s early header, James Forrest’s second and a third from Leigh Griffiths killed the contest – as it was – stone dead before the half hour.

Celtic supporters occupied three quarters of McDiarmid Park with St Johnstone having pragmatically sacrificed whatever home advantage they may have enjoyed for a significant boost to their bank account. The Saints board will feel justified, with 6339 Celtic fans in a crowd of 8743.

And it is little wonder that the St Johnstone support were hardly enticed by the prospect of seeing their side come up against the champions once more, given it was 27-0 to Celtic over the previous eight encounters. From the opening moments, that stark statistic was only ever going to get worse.

Neil Lennon reverted to the three at the back and two up top set-up that had worked so well at Rugby Park last week, and it almost paid dividends within the opening minute as Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard combined to force Zander Clark into the first save of the night, although he almost contrived to spill a rather routine effort over the line.

Celtic should have had the lead just a couple of minutes later as Greg Taylor got forward from left back and swung a cross in that Griffiths headed wide, but the huge travelling support didn’t have to wait long to get off their seats.

A clever combination between the front pair saw the ball fed wide to Forrest, who swung the ball in first time for the arriving Ntcham to bullet home a header.

At this stage, it looked as if it was going to be a turkey shoot, with Griffiths only being denied a quickfire second for the visitors by a desperate last-gasp block before Callum McGregor fired inches wide.

Just as Saints looked to be steadying the ship at least a little, Celtic pierced through their backline all too easily once more to double their lead before the 20-minute mark was up. The hesitant home defenders allowed McGregor to advance along the edge of the area before laying the ball wide to Forrest, who cut inside and smashed a right-foot shot across Clark and into the far corner.

Edouard then went within inches of a third as he danced through the porous home defence and dragged just wide, but it was no surprise when the back of Clark’s net was bulging again moments later.

Taylor again found Griffiths with a delightful cross, and this time the striker made no mistake as he lashed a left-foot volley in at the near post. For a player whose weakness is going forward - according to his manager, at least – Taylor was doing a decent impression of an accomplished attacking full-back.

You almost hoped for clemency for the shellshocked home players. As it was, a Celtic fan seemed to want to divert the focus from his side’s stellar display to that point by apparently throwing a water bottle in the direction of Saints keeper Clark. That senseless bampottery though couldn’t diminish what the visitors had produced in a sparkling first 45.

Tommy Wright threw on new signing Jamie McCart and Liam Craig as the proverbial fingers in the dam as he tried to shore up his leaky backline, while Moritz Bauer replaced Jozo Simunovic as Celtic reverted to a back four. It might have been better for everyone if they just declared there.

Whether it was the home side stepping it up, Celtic taking their foot off the gas or the change in formation affecting the visitors’ dominance of the midfield area, the second half was largely a non-event, with a couple of shots apiece from distance the sum total of the opening quarter of an hour.

Griffiths took his leave with 25 minutes to go after another encouraging showing, but there was little else of note happening until David Wotherspoon drew a decent save from Fraser Forster with a curling shot from the edge of the box.

Patryk Klimala got a run out for the last 10 minutes or so as Edouard was - perhaps belatedly - given a breather by his manager, and showed plenty of enthusiasm.

Man of the match Taylor almost got the goal that would have capped off a fine individual showing as he rasped a shot across the face of goal that fizzed just wide, Klimala arriving just a fraction of a second too late to claim his first goal for the club, before the striker cleared Jason Kerr's header off the line at the other end.

Substitute Johnston limped off to leave Celtic to play out the final few minutes with 10 men, but they could have taken another four off by that stage and it wouldn’t have made a difference.