Celtic extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to 13 points after seeing off Kilmarnock 1-0 at Rugby Park.

The only goal arrived just before the break, and from the feet of Stuart Armstrong, although in truth the margin should have been much wider.

A handful of good saves by Jamie MacDonald, as well as some poor finishing by the Hoops, kept Killie in the game longer than they should have been on a crisp evening in east Ayrshire.

Celtic dominated possession without creating too many clear cut chances during the early stages.

The first real moment of excitement arrived in the 25th minute when James Forrest's high curling effort was pushed behind by a diving MacDonald.

The hosts, who had threatened little at this point, finally put the visiting defence under pressure when Greg Taylor's cross was headed narrowly wide by Florent Bojal.

Moussa Dembele found the back of the net seven minutes before the break, only for referee Don Robertson to rule it out because Scott Brown had been in an offside position.

However, the league leaders finally and expectedly broke the deadlock on 44, when the ball broke kindly to Dembele whose slide rule pass was collected by Armstrong and the midfielder coolly located the 'keeper's bottom right corner from 10 yards.

And Celtic almost added a second goal in the opening minute of the second half when MacDonald used his feet to deny Callum McGregor who looked destined to score, while Scott Sinclair blasted the rebound widely off target.

MacDonald also saved well from Patrick Roberts, Sinclair curled inches wide and - at the other end - a Jordan Jones free-kick was easily collected by visiting keeper Craig Gordon.

With 80 minutes played Mikael Lustig clipped the outside of the right post from 20 yards, with MacDonald well beaten.

Kilmarnock never looked like forcing an equaliser against a Celtic side who have now won 11 of their opening 12 matches, and seemingly on their way to a sixth straight league title.