Celtic 1 - 0 Inverness CT: A sizeable chunk of Celtic season-ticket holders deemed Christmas shopping to be a more worthwhile pursuit than pitching up for the visit of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

A sizeable chunk of Celtic season-ticket holders deemed Christmas shopping to be a more worthwhile pursuit than pitching up for the visit of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

The gaps in the stands told the story of the midweek European exit to Aalborg BK.

Their team, meanwhile, had received their first gift of the festive season prior to kick-off. Rangers' loss to Hearts at Tynecastle offered Celtic the opportunity to move seven points clear at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League. That they duly capitalised was due to their unerring ability to draw three points from even the most uninspired performance.

This would have been a sleep-inducing encounter had nodding off not raised the very real prospect of hypothermia. Celtic did not warm up all afternoon. Gordon Strachan, their manager, used to agonise over the performance level of his team but three seasons in the Parkhead hot-seat has developed in him a pragmatic streak the size of Bobo Balde's (remember him?) wage packet.

He lamented his team's poor technique, but praised their mental and physical resilience.

He looked exactly like a manager who has a seven-point cushion should look - contented and quietly proud.

This was Celtic's 12th consecutive league victory and they are seven points better off than at the same juncture last season. "We are on a good unbeaten run and with players coming and going there's not been a set 11 like there was for the majority of last season,"

said Scott McDonald. "That just shows that the squad has got a lot stronger this season, which is great for the club. We have still got a few players out, so we look forward to them coming back.

"We just take it one game at a time. No-one in the dressing room has discussed for one minute this unbeaten run that we have been having. It's just something that has come about. Obviously, we will continue to try and win every game and if we can keep the run going then it puts pressure on our rivals to keep winning as well."

Celtic have won all five domestic fixtures after European outings this season and Strachan praised their ability to bounce back from the 2-1 defeat to the Danes on Tuesday.

"The players can deal with disappointment and with injuries. They can deal with days when they are not at their best and still get a win," he said.

Celtic's ability to "grind" out these types of victories can be over-stated. They keep winning because they have players capable of producing moments of genuine quality.

That was the case against St Mirren last weekend and it was the same on Saturday. Shunsuke Nakamura rose above the mediocrity after half an hour with a lofted ball in behind the Inverness defence for Shaun Maloney. The latter has been struggling for form recently, but managed to sclaff his effort into the bottom corner for the decisive goal of the game. Afterwards, Strachan rightly indulged in one of his favourite pastimes - Naka worship.

"There were a couple of pieces of good play by him but that was his best. It was a lovely pass, to get the ball up and down with not too much pace on it and allow Shaun to make his run was great. It was a clever run from Shaun but he knew probably the only person on the pitch who could play that pass was Nakamura. If the ball had been with a lot of other people I don't think Shaun would have made that run. That's two good players thinking along the same lines."

The visitors' policy of containment stemmed from their pasting at Ibrox last month, but they grew in belief as the game went on. "We passed the ball pretty well, particularly in the first half," said Craig Brewster, the Inverness manager.

"We got into great areas but then elected to pass or picked the wrong option. I don't think Celtic had that many chances. We didn't do enough in the final third. We pushed two up front but couldn't get the ball up to them. At 1-0 the fans started to get a bit nervy but Celtic held firm. We knew they would be hurt from Tuesday and we didn't want to get the backlash. We were solid but couldn't pull the trigger in the final third."

Don Cowie, the Inverness midfielder, was unlucky to be flagged offside when his marauding run through the centre of the Celtic defence was shown to be half a yard onside by television replays. "Rules are rules and if you are onside then you are onside," said Cowie afterwards.

"But the linesman only has a split second to decide and when there are 60,000 fans screaming then it is an automatic thing for him to put his flag up."