Celtic saw off a determined Motherwell effort to earn a deserved three points at Fir Park, as Jota made a triumphant first appearance since returning to the club.

Daizen Maeda scored within the opening minute, and it seemed then that the visitors would crush a Motherwell side still reeling from the departure of manager Stuart Kettlewell.

The Steelmen hung in there though, and the impressive Luke Armstrong levelled things up for the hosts, who were under the temporary charge of Stevie Frail and gave everything for their caretaker gaffer.

Adam Idah moved Celtic back ahead before the break, but while they completely dominated the second half, they were struggling to kill the game. That was until the dying moments, that is, as Jota got the moment the travelling fans craved as he finished off from Maeda’s cross.

Here are the talking points from Fir Park…

Jota makes triumphant return

The Celtic support looked delighted to have their ‘superstar from Portugal’ back in their colours, even just their training gear, in fact, as they gave the winger a huge ovation as he warmed up before the match.

And he milked their adulation, strutting like a peacock when he entered the action, his every touch and stepover being cheered to the rafters.

He has certainly lost none of his swagger, and as the clock ticked into the fourth minute of stoppage time, he got the goal that the fans were so desperate to see. He struck his famous celebratory pose, and seemed emotional as he led the post-match celebrations.

Maeda shows what a miss he was at Villa Park

Jota will get the attention and the headlines, but Maeda did more than anyone to earn Celtic this win, notching a goal and two assists.

He has always been valued as a boundless ball of energy on Celtic’s left flank, and his peerless work rate was certainly missed as he sat out the Champions League defeat to Aston Villa during the week.

This season though he has also managed to add a consistent end product to his game. For all the talk of how Brendan Rodgers’ system had supposedly stymied the output from Kyogo Furuhashi over the past couple of seasons, due credit has to be given to the Celtic manager for the productivity he is squeezing out of his wingers.

The improvement in both Nicolas Kuhn and Maeda has been stark, and the latter was rewarded for his clever movement within the opening seconds, as he met a lovely Anthony Ralston cross to the back post to steer a header expertly past the despairing dive of Ellery Balcombe.

It was his 16th goal of the season, and he didn’t relent in the torrid time he was giving Stephen O’Donnell down that side as he broke in behind following a flowing Celtic passing move to set up the goal that moved them back ahead, laying it on a plate for Idah to tap home.

Then, he topped it off with the cross for Jota's clincher.

Kuhn has been spoken about as a shoo-in to sweep the end of season awards, and he may well do so, but Maeda’s name has to be in the mix too.

Idah has scoring boots on again at happy hunting ground

After his long barren run without a goal, Idah seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch over the past couple of games following his double against Villa.

He was always likely to find the net here, given the fact that he has done so on every occasion that he has played at Fir Park, maintaining that 100 percent record from his three visits with the type of bread and butter goal that every striker loves.

When Maeda got in down the left, the big man was on his bike and got across his marker well to get the reward of his tap in.

He was also unlucky that a Tom Sparrow own goal he forced after showing impressive physicality to turn Liam Gordon was disallowed after VAR picked up an offside in the build up.

Frail in the dugout, but not on the pitch, as ‘Well show fighting spirit

It has been a week to forget for the Steelmen alright, with the fallout from manager Kettlewell’s decision to quit and the reasons cited for it hanging over the Fir Park club like a dark cloud.

Their fans turned up without even much hope then, never mind any expectation that their side would get a result, and you feared for them when they conceded so early on. But what the locals did get from the men in claret and amber was plenty of heart and a determination not to buckle.

And in Armstrong up top, they had a willing runner and a physical presence that gave the slightly off-colour Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty plenty of problems.

They played some nice stuff too at times on the counter, particularly in the first half, and while you couldn’t put up a case to say that Celtic didn’t comfortably deserve to win the game having hit the woodwork and had a couple of goals disallowed along the way, the Motherwell fans will no doubt have left the stadium with more reasons to be cheerful than they had when they arrived.

Push for Motherwell goal?

While Celtic will have cause to examine the role of their centre backs in Motherwell’s equaliser, with neither Carter-Vickers nor Trusty looking too clever, there was a VAR check to examine the two hands that Motherwell striker Armstrong undoubtedly had on Carter-Vickers’ back as the initial cross flew over their heads.

Referee Nick Walsh deemed that there was insufficient force to penalise Armstrong, and John Beaton on VAR seemed to agree that the Celtic centre back had made the most of the contact.

The incident definitely fell into the category of ‘seen them given’, mind you.