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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
Sport
James Delaney

Celtic 3-0 Hibs: Lacklustre Hibs sink to first away defeat of the season at Parkhead

Goals from Callum McGregor, Albian Ajeti and Mohamed Elyounoussi were enough to end Hibernian's unbeaten away record as Jack Ross's men slipped to a frustrating 3-0 defeat to Celtic at Parkhead.

The Easter Road side are winless in over a decade at Celtic Park and never seriously looked like ending that barren run in a toothless performance.

Ross opted to stick with the same starting XI that claimed a draw with Rangers last weekend, with the only change coming on the bench as Jamie Murphy replaced Stephen McGinn.

The Easter Road side had their long record without conceding from open play ended last week, however Callum McGregor took just eight minutes to breach the Hibs rearguard. The midfielder was afforded time and space to set his sights just outside the box and picked out the bottom far corner to give the hosts an early lead.

Despite that early setback, the visitors carved out two good opportunities to level, Christian Doidge firing the first over the bar from ten yards after being teed up by Kevin Nisbet inside the box.

Seven minutes later, Nisbet was off target himself after outmuscling Shane Duffy from Joe Newell's clipped ball over the top and curling over as he attempted to pick out the far corner.

However, the Hibees would be made to pay for failing to convert those chances when Ajeti doubled the hosts's advantage. Ofir Marciano could only parry a Mohamed Elyounossi effort back into the path of the Swiss striker, who finished beyond the prone Hibs keeper.

Josh Doig endured a difficult afternoon and was replaced by Lewis Stevenson at the break, with the long-serving left back equalling the legendary Eddie Turnbull's total of 487 appearances for the club.

The Hibs stopper redeemed himself after coming under heavy fire early in the second period, first pushing away a low Nir Bitton drive and then reacting well to beat away Scott Brown's effort.

The Israeli international was alert again to get his hand to a David Turnbull strike from range before Hanlon nodded away Edouard's headed effort from the resulting corner.

The visitors were struggling to get out of their own half as Celtic began turning the screw, but on a rare foray forward, Doidge was left frustrated when his pull back found the Celtic box devoid of Hibs shirts before Nisbet headed a McGinn cross harmlessly over.

Newell was also off target when a neat Stevenson cross fell at his feet inside the area, while at the other end Marciano pushed away a McGregor drive.

Nisbet saw his volley spectacularly blocked by Duffy and from the resulting counter attack, Turnbull slipped Elyounoussi through to slide the ball under the body of Marciano and wrap up the points for Neil Lennon's side.

Hibs: Marciano, P.McGinn, Porteous, Hanlon (C), Doig (Stevenson, 45), Boyle, Gogic, Newell, Wright (Murphy, 53) Doidge (Mallan, 83) Nisbet

Subs: Barnes, Gray, McGregor, Stevenson, Hallberg, Mallan, Shanley, Murphy, Gullan

Celtic: Barkas, Taylor, Duffy, Bitton, Brown (Ntcham, 82) , Ajeti, Christie (Turnbull, 45), Elyounoussi (Klimala, 82) Frimpong, Ajer, McGregor (Soro, 86)

Subs: Bain, Griffiths, Klimala, Soro, Turnbull, Rogic, Ntcham, Edouard, Elhamed

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