JORGE CADETE gave Kilmarnock sore heads to match their throats as Celtic thumped the flu stricken Premier Division strugglers at Celtic Park.

The dazzling Portuguese striker grabbed a hat trick, taking his goal tally for the season to 17, as Tommy Burns' side ran rampant for the second time in four days.

Last Saturday they put five past Motherwell here and this time it was Bobby Williamson's team, who had to play without 11 first team players because of a viral epidemic, who were the ones to suffer.

The victory not only bolsters Celtic's healthy goal difference but closes the gap on leaders Rangers in the Scottish championship race to 11 points.

This rearranged game would have been played last month but for the fact that Celtic gained a cancellation because they had two foreign players on international duty. One of those was Cadete and how Kilmarnock must have wished he had been absent again last night.

His pace and predatory penalty box instincts ripped them apart in a dazzling show of forward play.

He opened the scoring after just 18 minutes, outpacing Gary Tallon to reach Stuart Gray's long pass before steering the ball past Kilmarnock goalkeeper Dragoje Lekovic.

Jackie McNamara put Celtic further ahead five minutes later when he fastened onto a poor clearance from Paolo Di Canio's cross before crashing a stunning 20 yard volley high into the roof of the net.

Celtic's Italian forward Di Canio was then controversially booked in the 34th minute for an innocuous tussle with Kilmarnock full back Dillon Kerr.

Di Canio continued to torture Kilmarnock after the interval with a series of mazy runs but it was Cadete who put the Ayreshire side further behind in the 65th minute when he made it 3-0, finishing off a move which was started by Phil O'Donnell before the ball was headed into Cadete's path by, David Hannah.

Celtic brought on substitute Morten Wieghorst in the 73rd minute for O'Donnell and the Danish international scored just seven minutes later.

Another Celtic substitute, Chris Hay, who had come on for Di Canio in the 81st minute, made it 5-0 seven minutes after his introduction with a cool shot past Lekovic.

Leeds manager George Graham was in the crowd, thought to be watching Celtic's unsettled Dutch striker Pierre van Hooydonk, and he must have been impressed when just 60 seconds later Cadete grabbed his hat trick with a stunning left foot effort from 15 yards.