Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed the mentality and work ethic of his team after the William Hill Premiership champions came from behind to beat Hibernian 3-1.
Martin Boyle gave Hibs a 25th-minute lead after Auston Trusty failed to divert Josh Campbell’s shot to safety but Celtic turned the game on its head in the final four minutes of the half.
Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah ran on to through balls to net and Reo Hatate finished off a one-touch move to round off the scoring in the 58th minute.
Celtic matched the 106-goal tally of Rodgers’ first, unbeaten, league campaign eight years ago, with two matches left and the Celtic manager praised his team for keeping up standards despite having already clinched the title.
Rodgers said: “On a day like today, a beautiful day, we’ve already won the league, it would have been so easy just to turn up and not play with that tempo and intensity.
“As I said to the players before, this club is all about building on your past success, not dwelling on it.
“Two weeks ago you were a champion, we have a chance in two weeks’ time to gain another title. We need to build on the other two by keeping our rhythm, keeping our mentality to arrive for the Scottish Cup in a really good place.
“But the work we did as a team, that was the difference. To be a team of dominance, you need to counter-press the game.
“Against a team like Hibs who are very, very good, you see it so many times when they defend well, like they’ve done, then they break out with speed and pace, and the strikers up front, they can be a real handful.
“But how we pressed the game from the first minute to the end made me so proud of the team. Just that ethic and mentality to win, and then that gave us the platform to play our football.”
Rodgers handed 17-year-old Sean McArdle a debut in the 85th minute.
“He’s done really well in the B team,” he said. “It was to give him that feel. I want him to have personality, even though he’s only on 10, 12 minutes. And he showed that.
“I like him. He’s got decent legs. He’s got a nice football brain, he’s left-sided, he’s got culture when he plays.
“It gives him a little reward for the good work that he’s done. Now he’s got to continue learning and see what comes from it.”
Hibs head coach David Gray had been delighted with the opening 40 minutes.
But he said: “The goals we lose are poor goals, but also the timing of it as well.
“To be 1-0 up with five minutes to go before half-time, to then be 2-1 down before half-time, it was difficult for the players because then naturally you’re going to get that bit of a body blow at that point.
“Celtic have demonstrated that against us in all the games we’ve played against them. If you switch off for one second or you don’t quite do your job properly, they punish you.
“That’s why they’re the best team in the league, and they’ve certainly done that again to us.”
