Celtic concluded their Dublin Super Cup campaign with a clinical 5-0 victory over an Airtricity XI.
Stokes, Murphy and Hooper on target as Celtic sign off with win in capital
Celtic concluded their Dublin Super Cup campaign with a clinical if slightly flattering 5-0 victory over an Airtricity XI.
Irish duo Anthony Stokes and Daryl Murphy were joined by Gary Hooper on the scoresheet as Celtic over-ran their Irish hosts late on.
Both teams fielded much changed line-ups to those which started on Saturday against Inter Milan and Manchester City respectively, with Airtricity again demonstrating there is plenty of raw talent still to be mined from the League of Ireland.
Airtricity competed well in the opening sparring as the lively Daniel Kearns forced a fine stop from Celtic keeper Dom Cervi at his near post, before Jason Byrne took the ball from the sky exquisitely but could not match his first touch with his second as a half volley was fired over.
As the first half wore on and the impish Paddy McCourt became more influential it was Celtic who always looked the more likely to find a breakthrough.
Stokes thought he had broken the deadlock with a searing volley which looked destined for the top corner before Ger Doherty pulled off a stunning finger-tipped save.
He did not have to wait long for his goal though as with five minutes left of the first half his low drive from Murphy's pullback took a slight deflection en route to beating Doherty from around 15 yards.
The Airtricity XI rallied after the break as Daniel Lafferty was denied by Cervi after more good work from Kearns.
Celtic doubled their advantage with 20 minutes left as Murphy stroked home from the penalty spot after Danny Ventra was guilty of the clearest handball you will see all season.
With the Irish somewhat deflated Hooper smelt blood and twice in the final five minutes produced smart finishes to put the gloss on a polished enough Celtic performance.
It was left to Stokes to conclude what he'd started in the capital as he scored the pick of the game's goals at the death with a neat curling effort that went in via the near post.
