OLIVER Burke's double helped Celtic cruise to a 4-0 home win against St Mirren and move clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.
Burke gave Celtic an early lead and struck again 10 minutes into the second period after Scott Sinclair's penalty - given for a foul on the forward by Jack Baird - had given Brendan Rodgers' side a 2-0 interval lead.
Timothy Weah added a late fourth for Celtic, whose pursuit of an eighth straight league title is back on track after their 1-0 defeat at Rangers in their previous league match last month.
Celtic had started the evening ahead of their Old Firm rivals only on goal difference, but Kilmarnock have emerged as their closest challengers after beating Steven Gerrard's side 2-1 at Rugby Park.
Jermain Defoe pounced to score after 12 minutes of his Rangers debut, but Eamonn Brophy equalised midway through the first period and Jordan Jones, who has agreed a summer switch to Ibrox, fired Kilmarnock's 66th-minute winner.
Killie extended their unbeaten league run to five matches, while Rangers slipped to their first defeat in seven.
Aberdeen moved level on points with third-placed Rangers after winning 3-0 at Hamilton.
Sam Cosgrove fired the Dons into an interval lead and struck again early in the second half before Greg Stewart added a third four minutes later.
Hearts' three-game winning run was halted in a 2-1 home defeat to Dundee, who climbed off the bottom of the table with their first win in seven league games.
Olly Lee cancelled out Genseric Kusunga's early opener for Dundee, but the visitors regained the lead against the run of play just after the hour-mark through debutant Andrew Nelson.
St Johnstone climbed above Hearts and into fifth place as Murray Davidson's solitary strike clinched them a 1-0 home win against Livingston.
David Turnbull scored the only goal at Fir Park as Motherwell made it back-to-back league wins with a 1-0 victory against Hibernian, whose winless league run was extended to five matches.
