THE TITLE RACE IS OVER

The fact that cheers could be heard from the Celtic end just as Eamonn Brophy was tucking home an early penalty for Kilmarnock told us two things. One, that the home fans had just heard about St Johnstone’s late equaliser at McDiarmid Park against Rangers, and were fully aware of its significance. And two, that they had every faith in their team to turn the screw on their closest challengers by overturning their early deficit, in the process surely removing whatever little doubt remained about the destination of the Premiership trophy.

12 points now separate Celtic from Rangers, albeit with the former having played a game more than the latter, but it surely all over now bar the shouting.

DON’T SCORE TOO EARLY AT CELTIC PARK

For the second time this season, Eamonn Brophy scored the opening goal at Celtic Park, only to see his joy turn to despair as the hosts turned things around in short order to eventually win 3-1.

His 33rd minute opener in the game between the sides back in September was eventually rendered meaningless as a double from Odsonne Edouard and a Ryan Christie goal gave the champions the win, and Edouard was at it again as he added to Kristoffer Ajer’s equaliser here to put Celtic ahead before the interval. Leigh Griffiths added a third in the second half, bringing an unwelcome feeling of deja vu to the visitors.

NO BROWN, NO PROBLEM, AS LENNON FACES MIDFIELD SELECTION HEADACHE

Callum McGregor took the armband for this one with captain Scott Brown failing to shake off a calf strain picked up in Copenhagen. He will of course come straight back into Neil Lennon’s first-choice 11 when fit, but the other spots in midfield outside of McGregor are being hotly contested.

Tom Rogic and Ryan Christie did their causes no harm here, while Nir Bitton and Mohamed Elyounoussi came off the bench and Olivier Ntcham and James Forrest took a breather.

It is a nice problem for Lennon to have ahead of the second leg of Celtic’s Europa League tie against Copenhagen on Thursday night.

STRUGGLE WITHOUT POWER

The Kilmarnock midfielder’s game is based around his combative nature, but he crossed the line a little with his tackle on Jeremie Frimpong that brought him his second yellow.

Ironically, there was something of a furore around his challenge on the same player in the game at Rugby Park just after the winter break that went unpunished, but while his trip in the second half here wasn’t anywhere near as controversial as that incident, it was worthy of the second caution he received nonetheless.

It was no surprise to see the visitors physically wilt after his premature departure at 2-1, and there was no way back for the Rugby Park side.

TAYLOR BROTHERS FACE OFF

There was a nice moment for the Taylor family as Greg’s younger brother Ally came on for Kilmarnock during the second half to take on his sibling.

Ally was on the losing side on this occasion, but both he and Kilmarnock will be hoping he can make as big an impact at Rugby Park as his big brother did.