Partick Thistle 0 Celtic 5: Hoops sprinting to the finish line

One game away from becoming invincibles – Hearts won’t fancy their chances on this evidence on Sunday – and a Cup Final away from only the fourth Treble in their history, Celtic are doing anything but flagging.

As the rewards for a season of incessant endeavour dangle before them, Brendan Rodgers’s side have the look of a team who believe. This is not a team edgy in the face of making a little bit of history, but rather a single-minded and resolute outfit whose hunger looks insatiable.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers not giving up on keeping Patrick Roberts at Celtic Park

They put five past a Partick Thistle team that looked as though one might want to remove them of their shoelaces at the interval such was the dominance of Celtic, who moved within one goal of levelling the Premiership record of 105 league goals in a single season.

Rodgers rang the changes for the trip to Firhill – five new faces came in from the team who won at Pittodrie last Friday night - but there is a feeling at Celtic at the minute that whatever reinforcements are brought in, it simply has the effect of reaching for the chainsaw to cut through the chopsticks.

Such is Celtic’s swagger at the minute, their dominance and the zeal with which they stick to their task, they can go without the influence of key players without breaking stride.

The records have melted this season the longer Celtic have gone through this campaign. The Parkhead side levelled the 103 points records last night, a tally set by Martin O’Neill’s Celtic in 2001-02, and while few would quibble that the standard a generation ago was superior to what the Parkhead side are facing now, there will be few who will grumble at the swashbuckling football on offer from Rodgers’ side.

They needed just ten minutes to bore their way into this encounter; by the time the interval came around Celtic has knocked the stuffing out of their hosts with a performance in keeping with the ruthless tone that has been the hallmark of this season.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers not giving up on keeping Patrick Roberts at Celtic Park

Leigh Griffiths began it all with the opening goal from the spot after Patrick Roberts had been tripped by Callum Booth. The Jags defender made no appeal as the whistle blew for the award, instead covering his head with his shirt, sensing perhaps that the roof was about to come in.

Griffiths netted Celtic’s 100th league goal of the season, but there was more to come from the Parkhead side. Before the game had reached the 20-minute mark the game was beyond the Jags.

it was Tom Rogic this time who plundered the backline, but it was Griffiths who deserved special mention for his footwork in the build-up to the goal as he twisted this way and that before squaring the ball across the face of goal from the Australian to slide in.

Roberts was next to claim a celebration after the pick of the night. James Forrest, in the face of a wall of defenders, fed the ball to the English winger who, in a flash, switched the ball onto his left foot and cracked a ferocious effort from the edge of the box into the top corner.

In full flow like this, Celtic are irresistible. There was no pace of Scott Sinclair, no guile of Stuart Armstrong but in the craft of Rogic, the irrepressible bag of tricks from Roberts who bamboozled Booth and the confidence currently oozing out of every player, Thistle had no answer to what Celtic had to throw at them.

Griffiths has had a frustrating season by his own standards and yet the striker will draw his own personal stats around him like a cloak of protection from any criticism that may come his way; in 20 starts this term the Scotland internationalist has bagged 17 goals, an impressive return for a player who has endured a relatively staccato campaign.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers not giving up on keeping Patrick Roberts at Celtic Park

The forward might have had another at the start of the second period when he was put through on goal only to be foiled as he went to release his shot by a fine intervention by Liam Lindsay.

To his chagrin, Griffiths was replaced shortly after the hour mark by Sinclair with the striker clearly irked at making way. Still, when the plaudits came from their own support it was interesting to watch Rodgers seek out the striker and pull him back from the fray. A cuddle and a quiet word ensued, the moment closing with Rodgers patting the player on the back and sending him on his way.

Griffiths' removal had not stemmed the flood; as the Jags wilted McGregor crashed an effort off the underside of the bar that was ruled to have crossed the line before it came back out while Roberts rounded off a fine night with another cracker.

The 20-year-old Englishman let fly with a 20-yard drive that cracked the back of the net. It was a sound that will resonate in the wee small hours for a Thistle side who were tortured from first minute to last.