ON the day that Paolo di Canio's cast off boots raised £58,000 at auction, perhaps it was not so surprising that Celtic should demonstrate a bemusing eccentricity in the victory which kept them on Rangers' tail in the Premier Division championship.

While the Parkhead side were beating Dunfermline 4-2 at home, their Italian forward's unique, gold coloured foot wear was being sold over the airwaves of a Glasgow radio station to raise money for children's charities. Di Canio had worn the boots once, at Aberdeen on St Stephen's Day, when he scored the winning goal to keep Celtic's title aspirations at least simmering.

The people at Radio Clyde had been cautiously optimistic that they would fetch £5,000. It was extraordinary enough when they were knocked down to Tom Hunter, head of a chain of sports shops, for £30,000; positively astounding when the under bidder, National Lottery winner John McGuinness of Lanarkshire, donated his failed offer of £28,000 to the kitty anyway.

A similar vein of shock and excitement ran through Celtic's match with Dunfermline. Vulnerable in defence, thrusting and dominating in midfield and sometimes exhilarating in attack, the Parkhead side could have scored eight and should have conceded four.

They lost the opener to Gerry Britton after six minutes and pummelled the visiting defence so relentlessly thereafter that they should have been in front before Britton squandered a golden opportunity to double Dunfermline's lead. The striker, with only goalkeeper Stewart Kerr to beat, sliced his shot feet wide. Celtic were ahead through Jorge Cadete and Pierre van Hooijdonk within five minutes of that miss and 4-1 up - further goals from Cadete and Simon Donnelly - before Britton scored again and the Dunfermline substitute, Smith, cracked the ball off the bar when looking at an open goal from seven yards out.

Great fun, but the kind of bizarre performance that is unlikely to bring profit in Thursday's match against the more formidable Rangers at Ibrox. But the impressive return of McStay to midfield after a four month absence was a huge lift for Celtic.

Celtic and Rangers now have the championship to themselves, Aberdeen having dropped another two home points in the 1-1 draw with Hibernian.