Hibernian 0 - 3 Celtic: It's Three and easy for Celtic

Gary Hooper returned from injury to score his 11th goal in 12 games and Anthony Stokes returned from the seventh circle of hell, form-wise, to get the other two. Stokes's second was a beauty, a hooked effort over his left shoulder, the kind of thing he did regularly when he was once the darling of these parts.

Smiles again for Celtic, then. But Colin Calderwood remains in a frightful fix. This was his 13th game in charge and he has won just two of them. His last win was in mid-November, eight matches ago and, on Tuesday, he faces a trip to Ayr for a Scottish Cup replay that is looking decidedly dodgy for his beleaguered team at this point. With so many players uncertain of their futures - 15 of them are out of contract in the summer including six of yesterday's starting line-up - they are a club in flux.

It's been two years since more than one goal divided these teams in this fixture but, in truth, it could have been four or five. In fairness to Lennon, he looks to have made some significant additions and three of them were on the money here. Beram Kayal was outstanding, Emilio Izaguirre was excellent once again and Hooper came up with the opening goal when they desperately needed it. Hooper has been a jackpot signing, a fine SPL striker with deep reserves of confidence and an excellent conversion rate.

His goal rather popped the Hibs balloon. Not that there was much air in it to begin with, but it finished them for good at any rate. Hibs continue to bring their fans to the edge of desperation.

In truth, they were toiling for a few minutes before Hooper struck. They were getting pushed deeper and deeper and were stymied again and again by a woeful inability to execute even the simplest pass. At times, it was hair-raising to see a ten-yard ball veer off target, either to a Celtic man or straight into touch. The trickle-down in morale when this starts happening is potentially devastating - and so it proved.

Having denied Celtic a shot on target for fully 35 minutes and after creating the odd anxious moment for Lennon's side at the other end - David Wotherspoon had a header just wide in the opening seconds - Hibs showed serious signs of being over-run as the first half meandered to a conclusion.

Fortune smiled on them when Daniel Majstorovic failed to head in a Mark Wilson free-kick from four yards out with not a Hibs defender in sight.Instead of bemoaning a fluffed chance, Celtic took great heart from it - and set about ripping Hibs apart, which they duly did. This could have been so much worse for Calderwood's side. The influence that Kayal had was significant. Over his various injury woes, Kayal has got plenty about him, a bit of dig in the tackle, an eye for a pass and a leader's desire to get involved in the heart of the action. Just after Majstorovic's miss, Kayal threaded a perceptive pass through the Hibs defence and into Hooper's path.

Just back in the team after his own injury problems, he failed to put it away, sliding it too close to Mark Brown in the Hibs goal and allowing the keeper to stick out a boot and kick it away. Smart save, but soon followed by smartness of an entirely different order.

With a minute to go before the break, Stokes put in a cross from the left that fell to Hooper on the edge of the six-yard box. Hooper appeared well-covered by Paul Hanlon, but appearances can be deceptive when you've got a trick in your locker. Hooper's gorgeous touch took the ball up and away from his marker and in the next movement he stuck a delicate shot low past Brown and into his left-hand corner. Lovely.

Celtic got a second early in the new half, Kayal playing it through to Stokes who was taken out by Lewis Stevenson. Two Celtic penalties in a week?

Not a cause to cancel their fatwa on referees, perhaps, but a chance to kill the game, which Stokes made an easy job of, hitting it down the middle, right in front of the ranks of Celtic supporters.

There was an onus on Calderwood to change things now - and he did. Hibs tried to get forward more and, indeed, Danny Galbraith had the ball in the Celtic net ten minutes into the second half, but it was rightly disallowed for offside. Of course, the danger for Hibs was the counter-punch and Paddy McCourt would have provided it had his shot not been excellently tipped around a post by Brown. Short relief, however. Celtic got a third directly after. Izaguirre swept in a corner which carried to Stokes on the left side of the area. With his back to goal, his dander up, his marker Steven Thicot sluggish and no defender covering the far post, Stokes hoiked a right-foot shot over his left shoulder that floated beautifully across Brown and into the corner of his goal.

Two for Stokes and there could have been a third, too, when he scooped the ball over the advancing Brown only to see the fast-retreating Francis Dickoh hoof it off the line.Brilliant defending from Dickoh, but much too little, much too late to deny Celtic a resounding victory.