Updated

Glasgow, Scotland (SportsNetwork.com) - Scott Brown scored a pair of first- half tallies on Sunday, leading Celtic to a comfortable 4-1 rout of bottom-of- the-table St. Mirren at Celtic Park.

Coming off a 4-3 loss to Dinamo Zagreb in Europa League play, Celtic was looking a ninth consecutive win in Scottish Premier League play and the Hoops got off the mark quickly as Brown opened the scoring after just four minutes.

St Mirren pulled back an equalizer six minutes later through Sean Kelly, but the level score didn't last long as James Forrest put the defending champions back in front in the 15th minute.

Three minutes later Brown completed his double to give Celtic a 3-1 lead and Anthony Stokes added a fourth goal in the 67th minute to wrap up all three points in style.

The victory widens Celtic's lead atop the Scottish Premier League to six points over second-place Inverness, while St Mirren remains on the bottom of the table with eight points from 16 matches played.