DAVID TURNBULL thumped a long-range effort off the St Mirren post in the opening stages and claimed his first-ever hat-trick six minutes from time.
In between smacking the woodwork with a vicious right-foot drive and tucking the sixth goal past the exposed Jak Alnwick, Celtic’s players were perpetual motion.
At 4-0 ahead at the interval, they may have been excused if they had taken their foot off the gas in the second period, especially with a dangerous trip to Alkmaar next up on Thursday night with a place in the Europa League group stages up for grabs.
However, with Ange Postecoglou driving a new philosophy into his players, there was no respite as they continued to pile the misery on a ragged rearguard from Paisley.
HAPPY DAZE…David Turnbull and Kyogo Furuhashi celebrate a goal.
The 22-year-old Scotland international midfielder, who already claimed a double in the 3-0 victory over Jablonec, praised his non-stop team-mates for their mighty endeavours as the side racked up their sixth successive triumph, a sequence in which they have netted 24 goals.
Turnbull said: “Every minute was top-class from the boys. It’s about keeping the pressure on until the final whistle and I feel like we did that.
“I think that pleased the fans, they keep turning up and making good noise and getting behind us – it’s brilliant.
“Everybody played well on this occasion. As a team, we had to stay on it because we were up three goals early enough in the first-half and we had to keep playing like that to punish them even more.”
MODEL PRO…hat-trick hero David Turnbull.
Turnbull, speaking to the club website, added: “After that first one of mine hit the post, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be my day, and then three others went in, so I’m delighted.
“It’ll be a different game on Thursday, so we need to rest up now, get back into training and work hard again because we know what a good side Alkmaar were in the home leg and we got a great 2-0 result.
“Now it’s about taking this into Thursday and getting a good result over there.”
TURNBULL HAT-TRICK AND THE JOY OF SIX
