Celtic captain Scott Brown says his side will be hard to catch now they have opened a six-point gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The champions took advantage of second-placed Inverness Caledonian Thistle's 4-0 loss to Partick Thistle to stretch their advantage with a comfortable 4-1 win over St Mirren on Sunday.

After a slow start to their campaign which saw the Glasgow giants drop points to Dundee, Inverness, Hamilton and Motherwell, Ronny Deila's side have now won their past eight successive league matches.

And skipper Brown, who netted a rare double in the win which also included goals from James Forrest and Anthony Stokes, says the momentum the Hoops have built up will make it hard to derail them as they bid for a fourth league title in a row.

"I think in this kind of form, if we keep going and keep scoring as many goals as we have, we will be hard to beat," the Celtic captain said.

"It was a very good overall performance from the team today and I think we attacked well.

"The good thing is we are creating chances. The manager wants us to pass the ball and move and wants a more attacking emphasis.

"It has taken a long time but I think we have slowly built up to where he want us to be now."

Deila declared himself satisfied with his side's performance but again urged his side to be more clinical after they spurned a number of chances against bottom of the table St Mirren.

"We need to be more clinical. It is hard to sit here and be overly critical when you have won 4-1 and it could have been 10 but that shows the potential in the team," the Norwegian said.

"There were a lot of pleasing things but again I was left thinking 'Is it enough?'

"We should have maybe scored more goals and that's something we need to work on if we are going to improve."

After finishing second in their Europa League group the Hoops will discover who their opponents are for their round of 32 clash when the draw is made on Monday.

"I haven't thought much about it. I know it's going to be a hard draw and a hard opponent," manager Deila declared.

"There are two things that are important for me; that we get the best draw so we can go through, who that is is very hard to say, and also that we can fill the stadium and have 60,000 here and really get that atmosphere we want around our European campaign.

"I think everyone is beatable but some are harder than others. Everyone thinks the biggest names are the hardest teams but it's not always like that.

"I think Salzburg are one of the best teams in this tournament and we will see that as the competition progresses."

Celtic could face Legia Warsaw who were thrown out of Champions League qualification after fielding an ineligible player in an aggregate win against the Hoops.

It has left a bad atmosphere between the clubs and Deila is not keen on a reunion with the Polish champions.

"They are a good team of course and win almost every game they have had," the Celtic boss said.

"It would be a special game if that is going to be the draw but hopefully we get someone else."