Neil Lennon hailed Kris Commons’ “wonderful” form after his early strike proved enough to give Celtic a 1-0 win over Inverness in their Scottish Premiership encounter at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium yesterday.

The in-form midfielder worked a one-two with Georgios Samaras and drove past Caley keeper Dean Brill after two minutes for his 15th goal of the season which stretched the Hoops’ unbeaten run in the league to 18 games.

Afterwards the Parkhead boss, while acknowledging it was not the greatest of games, said: “He is wonderful and he is in wonderful form.

“I thought the goal was brilliant and when you see Kris in those positions you get disappointed when he doesn’t score, he’s that good at it.

“That is 15 for the season for us now, so he has been absolutely huge for me in the past couple of years and I think he will only get better.

“With the pitch being heavy as it is, it is very difficult to play quick football, the ball bobbled quite a bit.

“It is the winter, the conditions are going to prove to be difficult.

“It is not conducive to flowing football and at times you have to be a bit more physical and grind out results and that is what we have done in the last two games.”

The Northern Irishman was tickled by one newspaper report yesterday claiming that Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic had hinted he would like to finish his career at Parkhead.

“I need to look up Z in my mobile phone”, said Lennon with a smile. “He might not get in the team at the minute because we are going well.

“It is a strange one but it shows the reputation that we have and I think with what the supporters have brought to the Champions League, Celtic becomes more of an attractive proposition for players now which is fantastic.”

The former Celtic skipper was more circumspect when talking about his name being linked with the vacant post at West Brom.

Asked if there had been any contact from the midlands club, Lennon replied: “Not at all. I have had no inclination from any club.

“There are jobs going down south, I am lucky I am pretty secure and I have got good backing from the board and I still have a lot of things to do here.

“Until I get a phone call or Peter (Lawwell, chief executive) tells me there has been interest, I just don’t give it any thought whatsoever.”

Motherwell win 5-1

Celtic remained 11 points clear of Motherwell, who won 5-1 at Partick.

James McFadden scored his first Premiership goal of the season as Well claimed an emphatic fourth consecutive victory.

Former Motherwell winger Steven Lawless opened the scoring, but any hope Thistle had of claiming their first league win at Firhill was extinguished before an end-to-end first half finished.

Keith Lasley quickly equalised before Zaine Francis-Angol scored an excellent solo goal and McFadden lobbed home before the break.

Lionel Ainsworth and substitute John Sutton added to the scoring to complete the rout.

Aberdeen went third thanks to a 1-0 win at home to Ross County, Nicky Low's free-kick in the second minute proving decisive.

Hearts ended a five-match losing streak as they came from behind to draw 1-1 at St Mirren.

The Premiership's bottom side looked set for another difficult afternoon after finding themselves trailing to Steven Thompson's opener within a couple of minutes of kick-off.

But the Jambos showed a positive response to a 4-0 drubbing against Kilmarnock in their last outing when Jamie Hamill's equaliser ensured they would not return to Edinburgh empty-handed.

Elsewhere, Stevie May's first Premiership hat-trick took his tally for the season to 15 as St Johnstone beat a makeshift Dundee United side 3-0 in Perth.

Results, standings
Aberdeen 1 - Ross County 0
Hibernian 3 - Kilmarnock 0
Inverness 0 - Celtic 1
Partick 1 - Motherwell 5
St Johnstone 3 - Dundee Utd 0
St Mirren 1 - Hearts 1