Celtic ease to win at Livingston despite being down to 10 men

Celtic eased to a 3-0 victory over Livingston despite the dismissal of goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Reo Hatate’s penalty and second-half goals from Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda helped the league leaders to a victory at the Tony Macaroni Arena despite losing their goalkeeper to a first-half red card.

The former England goalkeeper reciveved the first red card of his career for a foul on Mo Sangare just outside of the penalty box.

That left Brendan Rodgers’ side to play the final hour with just ten men but they never looked in any real danger as Livingston failed to take advantage of their numerical supremacy.

The first chance came for Celtic but Hatate’s low dribbler lacked the power to trouble Shamal George in the home goal.

Livingston replied with a fierce Bruce Anderson drive that Hart did well to parry, with Callum McGregor booting Pittman’s rebound effort off the line.

The opening goal, however, came at the other end after 13 minutes. Luiyi de Lucas needlessly brought down Hatate and Beaton immediately awarded the penalty.

Hatate chose to take it himself and his effort squeezed under George’s body to give Celtic the lead.

The goalkeeper was unfortunate there but proved his worth shortly after as he rushed out to block Maeda’s shot from close range.

The next piece of drama unfolded at the other. Sangare reached James Penrice’s ball ahead of Hart, the goalkeeper bringing him down clumsily on the edge of the box.

Beaton flashed a red card and VAR did not change the decision, reducing Celtic to 10 men for the remaining hour of the match. Forrest was sacrificed to allow Scott Bain to come on.

Penrice took the resultant free-kick but curled it into the side netting before Ayo Obileye had a dig from distance that Bain stopped well.

Livingston began the second half looking to capitalise on their extra man but instead found themselves further behind less than three minutes later.

Maeda failed to turn in Kyogo Furuhashi’s cross from close range but O’Riley helped him out by tapping in the rebound.

Joel Nouble then tried to lob Bain after a mistake by the substitute goalkeeper but his attempt drifted just over the crossbar as Livi failed to mount any kind of response.

Instead there was still time for Celtic to claim a third in injury time with Maeda curled into the top left corner well from distance.