CELTIC PUT THREE PAST COUNTY

Celtic responded to their Old Firm defeat by earning a hard-fought Scottish Premiership victory against a stubborn Ross County.

County frustrated the hosts until the 64th minute, when debutant centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers' long-range strike deflected over Ross Laidlaw.

Albian Ajeti headed in six minutes later to kill the game, before nodding in a third to lift Celtic to fifth.

Ange Postecoglou's men put distractions surrounding chief executive Dom McKay's shock departure to one side as they eventually broke down a resolute visiting defence to secure a third straight home league win.

The hosts also had to deal with the absence of Kyogo Furuhashi, who is out for at least a month with a knee injury.

Expectation was placed on the shoulders of debutant winger Jota and he was living up to the hype early on, having a shot from distance saved and a close-range effort sail over either side of Liel Abada having an attempt parried onto the bar.

Celtic continued to probe and a free-flowing breakaway resulted in Ajeti having a tame effort saved, before David Turnbull put a 25-yard effort just wide of the near post.

County put in a power of relentless work rate to limit Celtic's chances and began to pose a threat of their own when Blair Spittal fired in a dangerous cross to no avail, and Jack Burroughs then lashed wide when a cross was the better option.

Up the other end, Abada struck the woodwork again with a deflected effort before firing a near-post finish into the side net. And there was a sense that a bit of frustration was creeping in, with Abada, Josip Juranovic and Jota firing efforts off target.

It seemed it would take something special or fortuitous to break County down and it was the latter as Cameron-Vickers' deflected effort looped over a helpless Laidlaw.

County did not go down without a fight as Joe Hart had to pull off a smart save to deny substitute Dominic Samuel's header, but the contest was over when Abada's inch-perfect delivery was headed in by Ajeti.

And the Swiss striker added his second, and Celtic's third, when he nodded in a close-range rebound.

Man of the match - Jota

The Portuguese winger will be disappointed he failed to score a debut goal, but the 22-year-old can still be happy with his afternoon's work after being at the heart of Celtic's positive attacking play.

Who's next?

Celtic go to Seville to face Real Betis on Thursday (17:45 BST) in their opening Europa League game, before a trip to Livingston in the league next Sunday (15:00).