Scott Brown shifted the focus from his Celtic milestone to the Hoops’ return to the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership following the 3-0 win over Motherwell on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old skipper played his 500th game for the Parkhead club and was named man of the match in an impressive Hoops response to the 2-0 defeat at Hibernian on Sunday.

Right-back Anthony Ralston scored in his first outing of the season, winger Scott Sinclair added a second from the spot and 19-year-old substitute Mikey Johnston notched his first Celtic goal just before the interval to make it eight home league wins out of eight.

Brendan Rodgers’ side moved one point ahead of Rangers and two ahead of Kilmarnock, with a game in hand over both clubs and that was to the forefront of Brown’s thinking.

He told Celtic TV: “Yes, it was huge for us to get back to winning ways after the disappointing result against Hibs.

“It started with Anthony Ralston managing to score in his first game back.

“I think the lads played really well, especially in the first-half, we dominated and got the victory we wanted.

“The second-half was always going to be hard but they ended up going man for man and hoping for the best.

“We had a lot of chances but the good thing is we are creating the chances, people are putting the goals away, Mikey Johnston getting his first goal and Scotty scoring a goal as well.

“It is a great result overall for us.”

Ralston was happy to be back in the frame at Parkhead after spending the second part of last season on loan at Dundee United.

The 20-year-old said: “I enjoyed it. It was great to be back with the boys.

“I just need to keep the hard work going. It was a great performance from all the lads, a well-deserved three points.”