Virgil van Dijk came to Celtic's aid once again as he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Partick Thistle on Wednesday that sent the champions three points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The Dutch defender, who grabbed a double in his side's Scottish Cup win over Hearts on Sunday, pounced at the second attempt to fire Celtic in front in the 60th minute.

Thistle, who clipped the crossbar with an Abdul Osman header in the first half, were thwarted late on by Craig Gordon as he kept out substitute Kris Doolan's acrobatic effort.

Van Dijk's goal gave Celtic their sixth consecutive league victory, and moved them three points clear of Inverness Caledonian Thistle at the top of the table.

Celtic made two changes from their Scottish Cup win against Hearts as Charlie Mulgrew and Aleksandar Tonev replaced James Forrest and Nir Bitton.

Tonev, whose appeal against a seven match ban for racially abusing Aberdeen's Shay Logan will be heard on Thursday, started his first match since October.

The opening 10 minutes was punctuated with sloppy passes on a slippery surface until Celtic nearly edged in front when Stefan Johansen floated a ball to the back post for John Guidetti whose header was tipped over by Paul Gallacher.

A quick breakaway saw Tonev test Gallacher with an angled first time shot before the 'keeper was forced to push van Dijk's 30-yard thunderbolt round the post.

Thistle came close to taking the lead on the half hour mark when Osman clipped the top of the bar with his header from a Stuart Brannigan free-kick.

However, Thistle had Gallacher to thank moments later when Johansen used his pace to latch on to an excellent ball over the top but the keeper stood firm and blocked his stinging strike.

The champions somehow contrived to miss two golden chance to move in front just before the break.

A mistake from Osman eventually saw the ball worked to Stokes but he fired wide with the goal gaping and the Irish striker fluffed his lines again moments later when he was off-target after rounding Gallacher.

Celtic eventually made the breakthrough on the hour mark through van Dijk.

The Dutch defender failed to make proper contact with a Johansen free-kick at the first attempt but the ball came back to him off a Thistle defender and he made no mistake as he volleyed past Gallacher.

Kris Commons, Scotland's current player of the year, has been used sparingly by manager Ronny Deila this season but almost made an instant impact after coming on as a sub when he got on the end of a Stokes cross but Gallacher kept his shot out with his feet.

Gordon was a virtual spectator all evening but produced a brilliant one-handed save to deny an acrobatic effort from Doolan five minutes from time.