Celtic 5-0 St Johnstone: Scott Sinclair scores treble as holders reach quarters

Scott Sinclair scored a hat-trick and Scott Brown netted his first goal in two years as holders Celtic eased past St Johnstone and into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup.

In the third meeting of the Premiership sides in 12 days, Brendan Rodgers' men were two up inside nine minutes thanks to Sinclair and Brown's stunner.

James Forrest, then Sinclair, scored within two minutes of each other just after the break. And Sinclair completed his hat-trick when he latched on to a deflection in the St Johnstone box.

Celtic have now won 24 consecutive domestic cup games under Rodgers as they aim for an unprecedented 'treble-treble'.

This season, in six cup ties, they have scored 16 and conceded just once.

Celtic earned hard-fought 2-0 wins in each of the previous two meetings, both in the league, but this time the Perth side offered little, apart from a Chris Kane effort that Scott Bain saved.

Tommy Wright's side struggled to deal with Oliver Burke, who burst into space and crossed for each of Sinclair's first two goals.

Brown lashed high into the net on the eve of the second anniversary of his last goal - in a 6-0 thrashing of Inverness CT in the same competition.

And Forrest made no mistake from a slight angle after Jonny Hayes' marauding run.

Former Celtic & St Johnstone midfielder Paul Hartley on Sportsound

From the first minute to the 90th, Celtic never let up their pace, their tempo, their intensity and their quality. When you come here you have the game plan - stay in it, don't concede early - but when you're 2-0 down after nine minutes and you're really chasing it, it's damage limitation.

Dumbarton manager Jim Duffy on Sportsound

People thought it might be a little bit more difficult for Celtic today, but they started so well. From the first time they touched the ball, it was over 20 passes before St Johnstone got it back, and they just kept at it the whole game. Although Zander Clark didn't have many saves to make, Celtic just kept interchanging and the variety of play and their decision-making was brilliant.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: "I said to the players that this would reveal the mentality of them, and to show that level of concentration was very good.

"Oliver Burke has huge potential. He's just getting back used to playing again, but I thought his running ability was frightening really."

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright: "We were beaten by a far better team, and we've been beaten three times now by a team that are far better; a team that costs millions.

"Celtic had every player on it, and we lose because we don't start the game well. We'll learn from it, the key thing is that we don't let three defeats from Celtic in a short space of time affect our season."