Date	Wednesday, 23 December 2020
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Celtic 2:0 Ross County
Venue	Celtic Park
Attendance
Referee	Euan Anderson
Comments	Match Report Report by Colin Moffat for the BBC. Played Behind Closed Doors Celtic 2 Ross County 0 Leigh Griffiths remains "an asset" for Celtic, says manager Neil Lennon after the striker scored on his first Premiership start of the season. The Scotland international looped in a well-placed header to add to a first-half strike from David Turnbull as Ross County were swept aside. Celtic stay 16 points behind Rangers, having played three fewer matches. "It's a good 80 minutes into his legs and he could have had a hat-trick," Lennon told BBC Scotland. "Griff is never short of confidence. He needs to get sharper and he'll say 'well, you need to play me'. I think the more he plays and stays fit he'll be an asset for us going forward." The clamour to remove Lennon reached fever pitch following a League Cup defeat at home against County last month, but the pressure on the Celtic boss has eased in recent weeks. Sunday's dramatic Scottish Cup success completed a quadruple treble of trophies and the champions are now five games unbeaten in all competitions. There were further signs of improvement in this one-sided contest, too. Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard were paired together up front, with the Frenchman given a freer role to go looking for the ball. Both were lively, with Edouard shooting just wide in the first half and Griffiths squandering two good chances shortly before he got his goal. That arrived on the hour when he was given time to steer home a delivery from the right from Ryan Christie. Griffiths, who scored as an extra-time substitute and tucked in a shoot-out penalty against Hearts, had earlier delayed a good shooting opportunity, while Ross Laidlaw saved after an appalling back-pass from Iain Vigurs presented Griffiths with a one-on-one. The breakthrough had come after 24 minutes when Jeremie Frimpong turned Josh Reid inside out before his cut-back from the bye-line was turned in by Turnbull. Bottom-of-the-table County battled diligently under new manager John Hughes but seldom threatened. The visitors spent most of the time defending their own penalty area but did have one good sight of goal early on, when Ross Stewart, who went off injured before half-time, glanced a header wide. Griffiths and Edouard have proven their prowess as a partnership before and, while the former was undoubtedly rusty, he got a valuable 80-minutes under his belt and tucked away his fifth goal of the season with a calm assurance. With County sitting deep, Turnbull and Christie were busy as the champions looked for gaps in a packed defence, although some of the play out from the back remains a bit ponderous. The home defence were rarely troubled but a clean sheet will be welcome and there were no signs of the panic witnessed at Hampden on Sunday and in several other outings this season. Celtic manager Neil Lennon: "It's another step in the right direction. I thought we should have won the game by a lot more but I'm very pleased with the freshness the boys who came in today brought to the team. The was a good zest about us." Ross County manager John Hughes: "Our organisation, the distances between players, our willingness to get stuck in and fight for the cause; I think that was evident. The disappointment is I'd like to have created more chances, laid a glove on them a little bit, and I'd like to have been better on the ball."
Ross County
Manager	John Hughes
Starting 11	1: Ross Laidlaw, 5: Callum Morris, 6: Ross Draper, 7: Michael Gardyne, 11: Iain Vigurs, 15: Keith Watson, 16: Alexander Iacovitti, 18: Stephen Kelly, 24: Harrison Paton, 27: Ross Stewart, 43: Josh Reid
Bench	31: Ross Munro, 3: Carl Tremarco, 8: Oliver Shaw, 9: Billy Mckay, 14: Jermaine Hylton, 22: Jordon Tillson, 25: Coll Donaldson, 44: Matthew Wright, 46: Ben Williamson
Celtic
Manager	Neil Lennon
Starting 11	Conor Hazard, Christopher Jullien, Jeremie Frimpong, Kristoffer Ajer, Diego Laxalt, Ismaila Soro, David Turnbull 1, Ryan Christie, Callum McGregor, Leigh Griffiths 1, Odsonne Edouard
Bench	Vasilios Barkas, Greg Taylor, Nir Bitton, Albian Ajeti, Patryk Klimala, Tomas Rogic, Michael Johnston, Olivier Ntcham, Mohamed Elyounoussi