CELTIC began the countdown to the end of the season by hitting St Mirren with a delayed one-two of sucker punches which gave the champions a hard-fought points win in Paisley.

Ronny Deila's men now have nine games to go in the defence of their title.

But the Hoops boss will be hoping their stuttering performance in this 2-0 win was the result of the need to get back into the swing after the international break rather than a portent of things to come.

It required a James Forrest goal after 64 minutes - the chance set up by a pass from Adam Matthews, who had got behind the home defence to latch onto a Scott Brown through ball - to finally knock the stuffing out of plucky Saints.

And, when the winger fired in a shot which struck the hand of Victor Genev 11 minutes from time, Stefan Johansen stepped up to drill home the spot kick and leave the home side licking their wounds.

When top meets bottom, there should only ever be one outcome. Especially when the chasm between them is massive 54 points.

But, given Celtic's not-too-distant history in games they were fully expected to win against St Mirren - Tony Mowbray's final night as manager five years ago this week, the League Cup semi-final of 2013 - it was understandable Deila approached this latest head-to-head with just a touch of trepidation.

Much of that was down to the fact the bulk of his squad have been away on international duty, halting the momentum built up in the past few weeks.

As any club manager will confirm, it is not until they get back into action in club colours that you really discover how much such in intervention has taken out of them.

The influential Nir Bitton - who aggravated an ankle injury playing for Israel against Wales last weekend against, but still played 90 minutes for his country against Belgium on Tuesday - was one man Deila did not want to risk for the full 90 ahead of such a key stage of the campaign.

He started on the bench - alongside Gary Mackay-Steven, Leigh Griffiths and John Guidetti - for a match which carried with it the chance to establish an eight-point lead over nearest challengers, Aberdeen, who play Partick Thistle today.

It marked the first of six games in just 19 days before the split.

That's a tough schedule for any club, but especially so for one which has already racked up 50 matches across five different competitions since they kicked off the campaign back in July.

To their credit, despite fighting on so many fronts, Celtic have already secured one trophy, and remain in pole position to add the league title and the William Hill Scottish Cup.

Last season, their third championship-in-a-row - always the priority prize - was already in the bag before March made way for April.

The engravers are going to delay considerably longer this time around.

But, even allowing for how hard they made it look last night, the Hoops are edging closer.

They can only hope they find victories easier to record than this one proved to be.

The line up selected by Deila spoke to the need to win the battle before claiming victory in the war.

Saints may be holding up the rest of the table, but, then, so were Ross County when they grabbed a draw at Celtic Park in December, a result which has given them the confidence to become one of the form teams in the division.

By the interval last night, Celtic certainly knew they were going to have put in a shift to earn their bonus.

All they had to show for their 45 minutes' work was a Kris Commons snap shot which forced Mark Ridgers to look sharp to save at the foot of his post, and another drive by the attacking midfielder which was powerful but close enough to the keeper to allow him to get his a strong hand to it.

Forrest forced Ridgers into a save of higher quality 11 minutes before the break, by which time Celtic appeared to have drawn the sting from Saints.

The home fans had been given something to cheer about when Stephen Mallan got his had to a Kieran Sadlier cross, but his looping effort was plucked from beneath the crossbar by Craig Gordon.

The Scotland keeper was also more than up to the job when Yoann Arquin ignored his team-mates' cries for a penalty after Mallan had gone down in the box under a Stuart Armstrong challenge to fire in a low shot from 16 yards.

Throw in the ubiquitous booking for Jim Goodwin for a rash tackle on Scott Brown, and that was the half in a nutshell - no pun intended.

The sight of Chris Sutton and Scott McDonald on the touchline conducting their half-time analysis for TV only served to make the Hoops fans yearn even more for a genuine centre-forward.

Anthony Stokes had been charged with this duty, but has never looked comfortable playing up front on his own, and this was no exception.

In fact, it took him until 48 minutes to have any kind of effort on goal, and that was a toe-poke easily smothered by Ridgers.

The Irishman did have another shot which cannoned back of Mark McAusland before flying tantalisingly across the face of goal and out for a corner.

But, he looked like a man in need of help of - or replacing.

Perhaps Deila was waiting for Griffiths to finish the tea-cake the cameras caught him munching on the bench before calling him into the action?

Eventually, Bitton and Efe Ambrose came on to shore things up, Matthews and Armstrong making way, while the appearance of Mackay-Steven for Commons meant Griffiths was left in situ to enjoy the sweet taste of another win victory.