After a fairly tame start to his Celtic career on his debut against Dundee last week, Kasper Hogh made the point that he may take time to adapt to life in the Scottish Premiership.
Given that he spent the past few years playing on plastic pitches with Bodo Glimt in the Norwegian top flight, Hogh claimed that he could well need time to adjust to playing on grass surfaces.
It was a quote which drew a lot of attention on social media. These things always do. Rival fans were quick to post footage of some of the chances he missed along with Hogh’s interview.
If the Danish striker needed some time to find his feet following his arrival for a club record fee of £11million, it certainly didn’t last long.
Consider the adaptation period very much over. Hogh was outstanding in this rout of Kilmarnock, netting a first-half hat-trick as Celtic ripped the home side to shreds.
With his pace, physicality, sharp finishing and excellent hold-up play, he looked every inch the top-class centre-forward Celtic have been in desperate need of for years.
Kasper Hogh stoops to convert a header that completed his first-half hat-trick at Rugby Park
After a lengthy pursuit over the past 18 months or so, the Great Dane has finally arrived and burst on to the scene with a performance that should ignite his Celtic career.
With fans still demanding several more new recruits before the end of the transfer window, the Celtic board should take note of what happens when they spend good money and sign players of genuine quality.
It may have been a club record fee needed to sign Hogh, but it already looks to be money well spent. The only currency that truly matters is goals – and it looks like he could score a bucketload for Celtic.
This was also just the tonic for Martin O’Neill after his health scare earlier this week. The Celtic manager was absent from the dugout here, with Shaun Maloney taking charge of the team.
There is no set timeline as of yet as to when O’Neill might return. But when he does take the reins again, he will inherit a striker brimming with confidence. Just what the doctor ordered.
As for Kilmarnock and Neil McCann, this was fairly alarming. Killie have now conceded nine goals across their opening two matches and sit bottom of the table.
If they were to lose the Ayrshire derby against bitter rivals Ayr Utd in the League Cup next weekend, much of the credit that McCann had banked at the end of last season would be gone.
This was the start of a new era at Rugby Park as Kilmarnock rolled out a new state-of-the-art grass pitch after ripping up the old plastic surface over the summer.
The old synthetic pitch had been in place for 12 years and, though much maligned at times, it was certainly a leveller for Killie at times in matches against the two Old Firm clubs.
The new surface looked immaculate as the teams emerged for kick-off, slick and greasy thanks to some heavy lunchtime showers in Ayrshire.
With O’Neill absent from the dugout, Celtic stuck with the same starting XI which had beaten Dundee 1-0 last Monday night.
Hogh puts Celtic two ahead with a first-time shot low into the corner of Kilmarnock’s net
Killie had come out on the wrong side of a seven-goal thriller against St Johnstone on the opening weekend and boss McCann made two changes from that trip to Perth.
Jamie Brandon and Johnly Yfeko came into the defence, with the latter making his debut. Ethan Schilte-Brown dropped to the bench whilst Nicky Clescenco was not in the squad.
McCann had called on his players to be brave in their efforts to disrupt Celtic and cause an upset but they found themselves a goal down in the blink of an eye.
There were only just over 60 seconds on the clock when Arne Engels found space down the left channel and dinked an inviting cross over to the back post.
Hogh rose to meet it and planted a header into the bottom corner for 1-0. After missing a couple of chances last week, the Dane was up and running.
The early setback could easily have floored Killie and taken the wind from their sails. However, credit where it’s due, they responded well and asked questions of Celtic.
It took a last-ditch goalline clearance from Auston Trusty to deny Aaron Tshibola on five minutes after a tidy move from the home side.
However, what unfolded over the next half-hour or so was nothing short of a capitulation from Kilmarnock’s point of view.
Max Stryjek was doing his best simply to keep them in the game, pulling off a terrific double save to tip a Benjamin Nygren shot on to the bar, before repelling a header from Hogh.
Another save soon followed to repel a powerful effort from Kieran Tierney. Had it not been for their keeper, Killie could quite easily have been three or four goals down midway through the first half.
The resistance would not last. With 33 minutes on the clock, the outstanding Hogh doubled his account when he latched on to a Nygren pass and fired a first-time shot low into the bottom corner with his right foot.
Barely two minutes later, it was 3-0 as the lively Camilo Duran clipped another cross to the back post, with Hogh stooping low to nod home for his hat-trick.
Celtic had been excellent. They played with lovely guile and artistry, one and two-touch football, and at a tempo which was simply far too slick for Killie.
There remains intense speculation over the future of Engels amid strong interest from a host of clubs in the English Premier League.
There is no suggestion as of yet that the Belgian is pushing for a move but he played with the swagger of someone who knows that there are plenty of suitors watching him.
Some of the combination play between Engels and Nygren in midfield was excellent, as was the hold-up play from Hogh at the top end of the pitch.
Having conceded four goals on the opening weekend against a fairly limited St Johnstone side, this was deeply alarming for McCann.
Killie were guilty of squandering possession in terrible areas inside their own half, most notably the manner in which Yfeko lost it in the build-up to the second goal, and it was no surprise they were booed off at the break.
Could they salvage some pride or respect in the second half? Any thoughts of doing so went up in smoke within a couple of minutes of the restart.
Having done so much to limit the damage in the first half, it was a moment of utter madness from Stryjek as he gifted the ball straight to Nygren as Killie tried to play out from the back.
The Celtic midfielder then had the simple task of lifting the ball over a sprawling Stryjek and into the net for 4-0.
Record signing Hogh celebrates after a performance that should ignite his Celtic career
The concern for Killie was obvious. This was threatening to turn seriously ugly. It was eight goals conceded in just over 135 minutes of football in these opening two matches of the new season.
They pulled one back through Michael Schjonning-Larsen just before the hour, but there was never any serious prospect of them mounting a fightback.
Duran hit the bar for Celtic and Hogh almost helped himself to a fourth, only for his header to come back off the post as the visitors continued to dominate.
Only seconds after coming off the bench, Luke McCowan scored with his first touch to make it 5-1 to Celtic as the home fans streamed for the exits.
After all the talk of grass pitches and plastic pitches, both from Hogh and also Killie as a club, the reality was that Celtic could have played this match on a muck heap and still won.
Such was the disparity between the two teams. This was as slick as Celtic have been in quite some time, stretching way back into last season. It was, as much as anything, a victory dedicated to O’Neill.
