Celtic held as Rangers and Hearts get serious

The 5000th goal in the SPL's nine-year history was scored this weekend, but this arbitrary milestone was forgotten by even the SPL itself. (Check out www.5000thgoal.com for yourself to see if they've updated it yet). Instead, atention was focused on the title race, and whether Celtic might just face some competition after all.

After their miserable starts to the season, there are signs that both Rangers and Hearts are trying to learn from their mistakes, and focus on the only thing that really matters - winning football matches. Rangers are now finding some form, having won 3 times on the bounce in the SPL, and qualified for the next stage of the UEFA Cup. After fighting a battle of wills with his team selection, Le Guen has now given in to pragmatism, and is selecting the best performers for the job - even if it means most of his summer signings being left out. So, McGregor was back in goal at the weekend, and Kris Boyd started upfront, and Rangers won 3-0. They were aided considerably, though, by some inept defending from Kilmarnock, which infuriated their manager, Jim Jefferies.

Hearts couldn't manage a goal, and so had to settle for a draw with ICT. This was their 8th game in a row without a win, illustrating the serious damage recent rows have done to the squad's form. Once again, they were reliant on the brilliance of Craig Gordon in goal to get them out of trouble. Off the pitch, though, the hierachy seem keen to mend bridges. Pressley has been reconfirmed as club captain, and Vladimir Romanov returned the Scotland ahead of the weekend. He met fans' groups last Friday before travelling to Inverness for the game. Those fans seemed in conciliatory mood, too, so everyone is friends again. For now.

Mr Romanov had Valdas Ivanauskas in tow, who has resumed his duties as Hearts' head coach after his sickness absence, and claims to be fit and ready to get the team back to winning ways. Pressley may have characterised his return as "incidental" to the problems at Tynecastle, but he seems popular with the squad - even the Scottish contingent - and he is certainly better at the job than Eduoard Malofeev. According to Alex Kolovski, the Hearts Sporting Director/translator/press spokesman, Malofeev will be available by phone while he takes his UEFA Pro Licence course, but frankly Ivanauskas would get sounder football advice by calling the speaking clock.

So both these clubs are making efforts to improve their fortunes, but they will still struggle to make a significant dent in Celtic's lead. They recovered from 2-0 down to share the points against Hibs in a scintillating match at Easter Road. Armchair viewers who chose this game as a warm-up to the Man Utd-Chelsea will have been thrilled with their choice, as Hibs ran rampant against a Celtic side who had achieved that heroic win on Tuesday night. The match was, as the cliche goes, an advert for the Scottish game, with some great play in amongst the crunching tackles. There was some play-acting from Neil Lennon, too, as he incited his opponents and then
claimed to have been assaulted by them, but the referee refused to take the bait.

Ultimately, despite how well Hibs played, Celtic earned the draw, and demonstrated two strong reasons why they are still odds-on favourites to win the title come the end of the season. Their fightback from 2-0 was sparked by a refusal to accept they were beaten, the hallmark of champions. When Kenny Miller received the ball in the 70th minute and scampered off down the left, looking for an opening, his team mates rushed forward in support, and Evander Sno steered the eventual cutback into the net. Their second great strength is the depth of the squad. McGeady is a fine impact player to have on the bench, and proved it with their 2nd goal.

Also on the bench was Derek Riordan, an unused substitute. 8th in the overall SPL scoring chart, he also scored the 4000th SPL goal, back in 2003. Nowadays, despite scoring a hat-trick for the Celtic reserves in midweek, he can't get a game. Will he be playing for Celtic when the chance to score the 6000th comes along?


Motherwell 4-2 Falkirk
Dunfermline 0-3 Aberdeen
Dundee Utd 1-0 St Mirren
Hibs 2-2 Celtic
ICT 0-0 Hearts
Rangers 3-0 Killie