Samaras, making his first start since September after a knee injury, scored the first and set up Shunsuke Nakamura for the Hoops' second.

Cillian Sheridan made it 3-0, before fellow substitute Jim Hamilton scored an 89th-minute consolation goal for the Buddies.

Samaras told Setanta 1: "It's great that I'm back in the squad and playing games. Now I need to find my form and help my team - there's more to come from me.

"I want to push myself even more. That's my first game but I'll keep working hard to be stronger. I'm glad I'm back.

"It was a good result and now we must focused on the game on Tuesday (the Champions League match against AaB Aalborg). We are ready for that battle."

Today's breakthrough took Samaras' goal tally to 11 in 14 games this season, and moves him to within one of SPL top scorer Kris Boyd.

And the Celtic striker continued: "I was in good form before my injury - I was unlucky with it but I'm a human being, injuries are a part of football.

"The lads did really well today and now we must push ourselves more to play better football.

"Most of the time St Mirren had 11 men behind the ball and it was difficult for us to find space - but we created it and had some chances when we moved the ball fast from one side to the other."

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On Samaras, Hoops boss Gordon Strachan said: "You don't have the same performance level after an injury - it'll take him time to get back in the groove.

"But we're lucky the other players have done very well. Cillian has played beyond the call of duty and that has allowed Georgios to get back.

"In the first half I thought we had good periods but they (St Mirren) made it difficult for us - they were enjoying the game.

"But we've got a couple of guys who can do things a bit different."

Strachan was impressed by Nakamura's goal, when the midfielder took a Samaras pass, cut inside and guided the ball into the far corner of the goal from 12 yards out.

He continued: "You can show the second goal all night - I thought Nakamura was fantastic all day. Maybe people didn't expect it on a day which was grey and horrible."

Strachan believed referee Willie Collum made the right decision in the first half when Craig Dargo raced clear of the Celtic defence in pursuit of Garry Brady's searching pass - only to be sent crashing to the ground by Boruc 10 yards outside the penalty area.

The tackle itself - far less where it occurred - appeared to be reckless enough to ensure a red card.

However, to the anger of the home support, Collum issued only a yellow card to the Poland international and the visitors survived the free-kick.

Strachan explained: "I think there were two guys behind Artur at the time it happened and the ball was going away from goal, so I think the yellow card was right."