Didier Agathe scored his second goal for Celtic as the Scottish Premier League leaders went in at the break a goal ahead at Love Street.

Martin O'Neill made his first visit to St Mirren confident of his side continuing their charge towards the Scottish Premier League title.

Celtic were hot favourites to take the three points at Love Street after their 6-0 demolition of Aberdeen last week and the return of £6million striker Chris Sutton, for Tommy Johnson, gave them an added lift.

Recent signing Ramon Vega was also looking to add to his dream debut double of the previous week while hat-trick hero Henrik Larsson was bidding to add to his 26-goal tally for the season so far.

St Mirren manager Tom Hendrie, in contrast, had mounting problems with Dundee United breathing down the Saints' necks while his already depleted squad was ravaged by the flu bug this week.

The odds were stacked against the Perth outfit with Sergei Baltacha and Gary Bowman sick. They were replaced by Paul Rudden and Chris Kerr, who was making his first appearance since sustaining a bad knee injury last August.

Scott MacKenzie dropped to the bench to accommodate the return of Tom Brown in the only other change from the team which lost 2-0 at St Johnstone last week.

When the game got underway it started at a fierce festive tempo with the home side throwing everything at the visitors and flying in for every challenge.

Brown broke the Celtic offside trap in the eighth minute, but he could not find one of his team-mates and stand-in skipper Johan Mjallby cleared the danger.

There was little in the way of goalmouth chances in the opening exchanges, but Vega went close to netting his third in two games in the 13th minute.

Bobby Petta's short corner with Stilian Petrov was punched into his path by Ian McCaldon, but the defender fired into the ground and over the bar.

But a minute later Celtic took the lead when Petrov found Agathe and as the St Mirren defence stood off he ran through the heart of their defence and sent McCaldon the wrong way for his second goal for the Parkhead club.

Despite the early opener the chances still did not flow, but St Mirren tried in vain to force Celtic back without troubling goalkeeper Robert Douglas.

The home defence looked nervous and lacked composure at times, giving the Celtic attack some optimism, but the visitors sat back as the game seemed stuck in the middle of the park.

But Celtic were always capable of stepping up a gear and on the half-hour they came close to adding a second when Neil Lennon's dangerous cross flashed across the face of goal and Sutton was just unable to get a crucial touch on it.

Celtic were starting to impose themselves more on the game and in the 33rd minute they carved out a great chance when Agathe beat Brown for pace before picking out Alan Thompson, who was in acres of space in the box but shot over the bar.

Agathe dispossessed Brown in the 38th minute to set up a three-against-two situation, but Petta had strayed offside and the chance went begging.

Ricky Gillies did well on the stroke of half-time to prevent Thompson getting a shot on target after Lennon had found him in the area.