Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths grabbed a second-half hat-trick against Dundee United to take the Hoops eight points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 3-0 win at Tannadice, yesterday.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon made a fine save from United’s 19-year-old striker Robbie Muirhead in the goalless first half before the former Wolves player struck.

Two minutes after the restart he took a pass from Stefan Johansen before drilling an angled drive past Radoslaw Cierzniak and then beat the United man from much closer range in the 65th minute to effectively seal the win.

With eight minutes remaining referee William Collum adjudged that United skipper John Rankin brought down substitute Gary Mackay-Steven inside the box – there were some suggestions he made the wrong call – which allowed Griffiths to slam in his third and re-establish Celtic’s advantage over Aberdeen at the top of the table with four games to go.

There might be some focus on the penalty award given the furore which followed the spot-kick the Hoops were denied in last week’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Inverness at Hampden, but this time it had no bearing on the outcome with Ronny Deila’s men deserving to win the seventh meeting of the season between the clubs.