Ross County suffered a miserable 5-0 defeat against Premiership champions Celtic at Victoria Park.
The Staggies were 4-0 down after just 35 minutes, with goals from John Guidetti, Callum McGregor, Anthony Stokes and Jason Denayer, with Stokes grabbing his second shortly after the break on a horrible day for the Dingwall side.
County manager Jim McIntyre included new signing Terry Dunfield in place of Rocco Quinn in midfield, with the latter set to undergo a hip operation on Monday.
That was one of two changes from the side that drew 1-1 against Caley Thistle before the international break, with Darren Barr also starting in place of Jackson Irvine, ineligible against his parent club.
Charlie Mulgrew returned from a knee injury to start for Celtic, with Mikael Lustig and Callum McGregor restored to the side following the 1-0 defeat to Hamilton Accies a fortnight ago. Mubarak Wakaso, Efe Ambrose and Kris Commons made way.
Celtic opened the scoring on 11 minutes, when Anthony Stokes’ free-kick was knocked down by Charlie Mulgrew, with John Guidetti reacting fastest to drill the ball beyond goalkeeper Mark Brown.
The Hoops doubled the advantage just three minutes later, with Stefan Johansen’s ball over the top finding goalscorer Guidetti, and although he appeared to scuff his pass into the box, it fell for McGregor to sidefoot past Brown.
County attempted to regroup but struggled to create chances to get back into the game, and Ronny Deila’s side made it three on the half hour mark. Anthony Stokes picked up the ball on the edge of the box, before curling low into Brown’s left-hand corner.
McIntyre immediately replaced Darren Barr with Michael Gardyne in a tactical switch, however five minutes later the Staggies were left stunned as Celtic grabbed their fourth as Jason Denayer lashed home following Johansen’s corner, and were only denied a fifth when the Norweigian’s shot was hacked off the line by Scott Boyd.
Boyd was one of two players withdrawn by McIntyre at the break, with Yoann Arquin also making way as debutant Paul Quinn and Jake Jervis came on.
The game was halted due to a bad injury sustained by Emilio Izaguirre following Gardyne’s challenge, with the Honduras international stretchered off and replaced by Adam Matthews.
Stokes drilled home a fifth goal from the edge of the box on 56 minutes, with the Irishman notching his second of the game.
County tried to salvage a consolation, with Joe Cardle stroking just wide before Gardyne smacked a shot off the post ensuring Celtic maintained their clean sheet.