Celtic midfielder Alan Thompson restored his club's 13-point lead over Rangers with the only goal of the game against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

The former England Under-21 international prodded home the winner from a Didier Agathe cross on the hour.

But it was unlucky 13 for Kilmarnock, who saw their 12-game unbeaten run ended by the Scottish Premier League leaders.

Striker Chris Sutton took just 52 seconds to make his mark with a poor challenge on Ian Durrant which earned him a caution.

His further contributions in the first period were more positive but not potent enough to damage Killie.

Stilian Petrov forced a good save from Gordon Marshall early on after Sutton had knocked Thompson's cross to him.

But Henrik Larsson sniffed the chance of goal as Marshall failed to secure the ball, but Chris Innes and Garry Hay moved in to help out their goalkeeper.

Thompson was later set free by a clever ball from Sutton but drove wide of Marshall's goal.

Christophe Cocard joined Sutton in referee Willie Young's book for a poor challenge on Paul Lambert after 13 minutes.

Sutton was constantly dangerous at set-pieces and almost opened the scoring for the visitors in the 21st minute when he guided a Thompson free-kick just over Marshall's crossbar.

Larsson was having a quiet afternoon alongside Sutton but still managed to force Marshall into a good save from a set-piece.

Killie did not enjoy much early luck up front. Good work between Durrant and Andy McLaren set up Hay for a cross - but no Kilmarnock player read the situation, and the chance was lost.

At the other end Sutton almost played a clever one-two to set Petrov clear, but Frederic Dindeleux cut out the danger on the edge of the box.

Lambert had been struggling since the challenge with Cocard and was left on the ground as he stretched for a ball into the centre circle seconds before Tom Boyd was felled by Ally Mitchell as both men chased the loose ball.

Agathe arrived as a replacement for the injured Lambert.

Celtic goalkeeper Jonathan Gould was finally tested with four minutes left of the first half.

The Scotland international was forced to scramble clear Gus MacPherson's cross under intense pressure from McLaren.

Sutton took less than 90 seconds to force Marshall into another good block before Petrov repeated the strike with the Killie goalkeeper again required to push the ball away.

Petrov found Joos Valgaeren on the edge of the box, and the Belgian in turn touched the ball back to Thompson whose strike was well saved by Marshall - diving low to his left.

But Killie were not going to surrender their unbeaten record without a fight, and Johan Mjallby had to react swiftly to turn Cocard's cross away for a corner.

Killie boss Bobby Williamson needed to make a change and brought off James Fowler for Peter Canero.

MacPherson afforded Cocard space on the right-hand side of the box, but again the home side's move broke down because nobody else had followed the move up.

On the hour, Celtic took their deserved lead.

An Agathe cross was missed by both Sutton and Larsson but also Marshall, and Thompson had the simple task of slotting the ball home.

Hay was grateful that Agathe was not in shooting form in the 70th minute when the Celtic winger struck over the crossbar after robbing the Killie man who had slipped.

But if Hay was left red-faced heaven knows what Larsson must have felt like moments later when he took a poor Dindeleux pass around Innes and chipped Marshall - only to see the ball roll beyond the post.

But again it was Celtic grinding out another victory in the face of stiff competition which will concern Rangers and manager Dick Advocaat.