Celtic 1-0 Inverness CT

Shaun Maloney's 29th minute strike against Inverness at Parkhead took the Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders seven points clear of second-placed Rangers to end a disappointing week on a positive note.

The increased gap at the top of the table was welcomed by the Parkhead faithful although their side looked flat in the wake of Tuesday night's European exit at the hands of Aalborg.

The one highlight of a turgid game came when Maloney capitalised on a fine pass by Shunsuke Nakamura to fire past Caley keeper Ryan Esson to separate the side at the break.

The second half was almost totally free of incident but Maloney's goal ultimately gave Gordon Strachan's men their 12th straight SPL win to pile the pressure on their arch-rivals, who lost earlier in the day at Hearts.

There were several thousand empty seats at Parkhead to indicate a lack of enthusiasm for the fixture and those supporters who did turn up watched the visitors pose several early threats on the counter-attack.

Celtic spluttered in their attempts to gain the upper hand as strikers Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras struggled to cope with Caley's offside trap.

However, there was the inherent danger that the Highlanders, despite their slick play moving forward, would eventually be undone if they continued to rely on the assistants.

Indeed, just before the half-hour mark, the best pass of the first half from Nakamura outwitted the Caley back four and allowed Maloney to open the scoring.

The Japan international initially tied himself in knots down the right-hand side and the ball was lost.

But when he took possession again seconds later, a clever reverse pass allowed the Scotland international to beat the offside trap and have time to control the ball on his chest, turn and slam his shot from 14 yards past Esson.

Seconds later, the Caley keeper had to dive smartly to his right to beat away a 25-yard drive from Maloney, who looked to double his tally.

The champions appeared to tighten their grip on the game but in the 38th minute, in an other swift Caley counter, midfielder Douglas Imrie chipped over the bar from just inside the box.

Then, from Don Cowie's in-swinging corner, Celtic keeper Artur Boruc fumbled, leaving Caldwell to sweep the ball away from danger.

Five minutes after the break, Inverness were denied a great chance to equalise when midfielder Ian Black sent Garry Wood racing clear of a square home defence, only to be stopped, erroneously it appeared on television pictures, by one of the assistant's flag.

The champions continued to irritate their fans with some slack play which encouraged Inverness further, shown in the 55th minute by Black's confident drive from 25 yards which drew a decent save from Boruc.

Celtic were not lacking in work rate, only in inspiration and, as the second half progressed, the crucial second goal did not appear to be imminent.

Just after the hour mark, with the game stagnating, Samaras and Robson were replaced by Cillian Sheridan and Lee Naylor, respectively, while Andrew Barrowman came on for Wood.

The Celtic nerves jangled as the game slipped in to its closing stages with only one goal separating the sides.

Inverness pressed for the equaliser with commendable industry but the Parkhead defence remained solid.

When the final whistle sounded after four added minutes to end a rather nondescript game, the seven-point gap Celtic had opened up on their great rivals was probably enough to appease the fans.