Celtic make winning start

South Korea’s Ki Sung-Yeung was among the scorers yesterday as Celtic made a confident start to their Scottish title challenge with a 2-0 win against Hibernian in Edinburgh.

Ki netted Celtic’s decisive second goal midway through the second half at Easter Road after Anthony Stokes had given Neil Lennon’s team an early lead following a mistake from keeper Graham Stack.

Celtic’s margin of victory could have been even greater but Stack partially redeemed himself by saving Gary Hooper’s second-half penalty.

After being pipped to the title by arch-enemies Rangers on the final day of last season, this was the ideal way for Celtic to kick off their bid to take the crown away from Ibrox for the first time in four years.

Rangers had been held to a lacklustre draw by Hearts on Saturday and Lennon’s side took advantage to establish an early lead over their main rivals in the title race.

Lennon saluted Ki’s contribution and said: “Ki has been consistent over the last 18 months and is developing nicely into a top class player. He showed all his attributes, good presence, good passing and got a goal.”

The Hoops boss was also im-pressed with the way his team took control in the second half.

“I thought we were outstanding in the second half. It was probably more than I could have expected at this stage of the season,” he said.

“I am obviously delighted with the performance, result and clean sheet. I thought the players adapted brilliantly.”

Hibs’ woes looked set to continue when with the score already reading 2-0, Celtic won a penalty after Emilio Izaguirre’s clever check-back forced Ivan Sproule into a foul right on the edge of the area.

But Stack kept the score down as he dived to his right to push Hooper’s spot-kick on to a post before helping clear the rebound.

In the day’s other game, Dundee United’s Danny Swanson scored a late equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw that denied new Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels his first victory.

Rory McKeown put Killie ahead with a superb long-range effort one minute after half-time, but Swanson fired home in the 70th minute to ensure the points were shared at Tannadice.