Hogh hat-trick steers Celtic to 5-1 victory at Rugby Park
Kasper Hogh scored a first-half hat-trick for Celtic at Rugby Park in Ayrshire on Saturday as the Scottish champions beat Kilmarnock 5-1 in the Premiership.
The £11m striker, a record-breaking summer recruit for Celtic, converted his first goals for the club during the victory and has now played only 175 minutes of competitive football for his new side. His treble was the first league hat-trick by a Celtic forward since October 2022, when James Forrest scored three against Hibernian, and had the expected boost of easing early criticism following his missings in Celtic's Premiership opener at Dundee.
Hogh put Celtic ahead inside 64 seconds, rising to nod in Arne Engels' cross from close range while some fans were still taking their seats, and had collected the match ball before the half-hour mark. He followed the opening header with a precise low finish and completed his rapid three-goal sequence with a diving header, a sequence described in the report as a firm back-post header, a precise low finish and a diving header that completed a rapid-fire treble.
BBC pundit Pat Nevin praised the goalscoring instincts behind the opener and the broader performance, calling the first strike "an easy goal, but a good goal and that's where strikers want to live". Nevin added: "Hogh is a new star," and said: "And the Celtic fans have got someone they are going to fall in love with because he looks to me like a total and utter natural goalscorer, as well as a good technical player as well. "Celtic loved Daizen Maeda with his workrate, and before that Kyogo Furuhashi, but this guy looks like he can fill those shoes with some ease. "I can remember watched Kyogo in his first game and thinking 'Oh, my word, you could be the new Larsson' because of his movement and he's that good. "After 45 minutes, I'm looking at Hogh and thinking this isn't a fluke. Some players can come in and get a hat-trick and it's a bit lucky because you find yourself in the right position. "No, this is a player, this is a striker who knows where the goal is, knows where to go, has intelligent movement and there's his link-up play as well."
BBC Scotland chief sportswriter Tom English also commended Hogh's display and placed his recent form in the context of the signing, saying: "Hogh is looking more ruthless than he did on Monday, when he had chances and didn't take them," and: "In my opinion, he is the most proven goalscorer that Celtic have signed since Chris Sutton. I'm talking about pedigree, who has done it before he got to Celtic." He pointed to Hogh's record on bigger stages in his assessment: "Look at the goals he's scored in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Inter Milan and for Bodo/Glimt against Sporting, Olympiacos and Porto. "I think it's £11m very well spent and this guy is going to get buckets of goals this season. He's a six-yard-box striker, not exclusively, but he gets a lot of his goals there and in this league against the defenders he's coming up against, he's going to tear up this league."
Hogh laughed when speaking to Sky Sports after the final whistle and attributed his performance to "shooting practice". The 25-year-old had been Bodo/Glimt's top scorer in the last two seasons and developed a wider reputation in Europe under manager Kjetil Knutsen before his move to Celtic.
Sunday's hat-trick also moved Hogh level with St Mirren midfielder Killian Phillips as the Premiership's top scorer at this early stage, and it represents the first step in repaying Celtic's transfer outlay. His next tasks include helping Celtic progress in the League Cup and preparing for the Champions League play-off tie against LASK.
