Five star Celtic beat St Mirren in Paisley to move 16-points clear at top of Premiership

Celtic have defeated St Mirren to move 16-points clear at the top of the Premiership.

The Hoops secured a 5-2 win at the SMISA on Saturday afternoon.

Defeat for Rangers earlier in the day means the league leaders strengthen their grip on another title in their march towards four in a row.

Celtic left-back Jeffrey Schlupp opened the scoring in Paisley before Welshman Declan John equalised for the hosts.

Arne Engels put the Hoops back ahead at the end of the first-half but they were pegged back again when Killian Phillips struck early in the second.

Yang scored the fifth goal of the game with a header to make it 3-2 and give the champions a lead for the third time in the game.

Daizen Maeda continued his recent run of good form when he added a fourth and secured all three-points for the visitors.

Yang added another in injury time to put icing on the cake for Celtic.

There were early opportunities for both sides with Mikael Mandron, Reo Hatate and Maeda all failing to hit the target in the first 15 minutes.

Toyosi Olusanya then had the first real chance of the game when he raced past Auston Trusty and found himself one-on-one with Kasper Schmeichel inside the area, but the Denmark goalkeeper produced a good save to keep the game goalless.

Schmeichel was called into action again soon after during a good spell for the home side.

Marcus Fraser sent Ryan Alebiosu in down the right and his cross was parried by the keeper who did well to gather Mark O’Hara’s follow up.

Brendan Rodgers was forced into the first change of the match when he replaced injured Trusty with Liam Scales on the 25th minute.

Celtic opened the scoring soon after when January signing Schlupp scored his first goal for the club in what could be said was against the run of play.

The Ghana international collected the ball on the left hand side before driving his shot into the far corner to make it 1-0.

However, St Mirren got themselves level at 1-1 soon after when Welsh former Rangers player John marked St David’s day by curling in a brilliant free-kick that cannoned off the bar and in leaving Schmeichel with no chance.

Olusanya, who was causing the Celtic defence all kinds of trouble, had a good chance to put his side in front with five minutes left of the half but he sent his looping effort well over the bar.

But it was the Hoops who got themselves back in front when they were awarded a penalty at the end of the first 45 when Alebiosu fouled Maeda with a rash challenge inside the box.

Arne Engels stepped up and sent his spot-kick down the middle of the goals to make it 2-1 going into the break.

The second-half was just three minutes old when St Mirren equalised again.

This time it was Killian Phillips who struck a shot than bounced off the ground and into Schmeichel’s top corner to make it 2-2.

Yang hadn’t been on the pitch long when he found himself free in the box before heading an exquisite cross by Hatate past Zach Hemming to make it 3-2.

The South Korea winger had the ball in the net again soon after but this time the goal was ruled out for an offside.

Luke McCowan then came close to putting the game to bed, but his effort struck the post.

Maeda put the game to bed on the 87th minute when he slotted home his 26th goal of an impressive campaign.

The three points were guaranteed when Yang made it 5-2 in injury time with another header after good work by Schlupp down the left hand side.