They wrapped things up in the 37th minute when Larsson glanced in a header from Thom’s free-kick.The Parkhead crowd of 48,000 sat back and waited for a similar deluge after the interval but Lekovic magnificently denied those expectations. Then, two minutes later, Wieghorst exchanged passes with Donnelly to score. But for the magnificent display by Kilmarnock keeper, Dragoje Lekovic, the score would have been embarrassing. The Yugoslav international made wonderful saves from Craig Burley, Jackie McNamara and Donnelly before Larsson opened the flood gates in the 18th minute, the Swede reacting quickly to whip in Andy Thom’s cross.Celtic doubled their lead in the 32nd minute when McNamara slipped a pass to Donnelly who guided his shot past Lekovic. Saints still have an immense uphill struggle and the Hammers – surprise, surprise – may once again have been flattering to deceive..

Celtic ensured there was no hangover to follow the intoxicating praise they received for taking Liverpool to the brink in the midweek Uefa Cup tie by sweeping Kilmarnock aside. Their manager Wim Jansen need not have worried that his players would still be dwelling on that match as four goals, two from Henrik Larsson and one each from Simon Donnelly and Morten Wieghorst, in a 19-minute spell in the first half, underlined that if Liverpool want a re-match next year then they might have to get into the Champions’ League to do it.
Jansen’s team have now gone 10 games without defeat in all competitions since they opened with Premier League setbacks against Hibs and Dunfermline and certainly Kilmarnock were never going to stand in their way as they re-established their title credentials.Apart from a stinging shot and a volley from Kilmarnock’s Pat Nevin the traffic was all one way. Rio Ferdinand, again impressive, was the only cool head as West Ham crumbled in that last half-hour. The consequence was that John Hartson was too often outnumbered while Eyal Berkovitch, the jeers of the fans who had worshiped him in Saints’ colours last season ringing in his ears, did not have a fruitful afternoon. Ian Pearce got in his tackle but the ball broke in the attacker’s favour and Davies’s diagonal drive beat Miklosko.

Five minutes later the confidence now seeping into Southampton’s play was underlined by Jason Dodd taking pot luck with a 35-yard right-foot volley that flew past Miklosko for the third.Deprived of Stan Lazaridis, and with Andy Impey playing surprisingly deep, West Ham had lacked width. Then Le Tissier’s free-kick found Ken Monkou but, as with John Hartson’s connection with Tim Breacker’s cross at the other end, the final header was well off target.When Ostenstad replaced Michael Evans seven minutes into the second half, Saints were transformed. Within minutes he was pouncing on the chance proffered in the 55th minute when Miklosko spilled a Davies header into his path and Southampton were ahead.There were few signs that the earth had opened beneath the Hammers, but 10 minutes later Davies moved on to a Le Tissier pass. They collapsed in the second half once Egil Ostenstad had broken the deadlock seven minutes after the re-start. Against expectations, it was the Norwegian striker who proved to be the catalyst and not Matt Le Tissier, who in his second match of the season was a wan figure for most of the 90 minutes.
In a first half virtually bereft of constructive football or enjoyable skills, the only real threat on either goal was when Kevin Davies headed Carlton Palmer’s cross down past Ludek Miklosko only to see the ball bounce up on to the crossbar.