by John Reid
Celtic hit six and the big first division clash ends in a draw in this week’s round-up.
Celtic rebounded from their defeat to Juventus with a 6-2 win over Dundee United. After Scott Armstrong giving United the lead Celtic responded in style with two goals from Commons, two from Stokes, Ambrose and Ledley. Johnny Russell got a consolation whilst a talking point was the awarding of a very soft penalty to United by ref Bobby Madden, but Fraser Forster saved Jon Daly’s spot kick.
Motherwell cemented their position in second place with a 3-0 win over Inverness, who have now lost their last five games in all competitions, a double from Michael Higdon – who became the SPL’s top scorer – ensured that the ‘Well were victorious.
Kilmarnock’s good run continued as they won 3-0 at Hearts thanks to a Paul Heffernan hat-trick, compounding the bad news for the Edinburgh side captain Marius Zaliukas will miss the rest of the season due to injury, including the league cup final.
Talking of the league cup final, Hearts’ opponents St. Mirren lost 1-0 to Hibs, the only goal coming from a Leigh Griffiths penalty.
Ivan Sproule continued his good start to his Ross County career as he scored the only goal as County defeated St. Johnstone, and on Friday night Aberdeen defeated Dundee 1-0 thanks to a goal from their top scorer Niall McGinn.
Arguably the biggest came of the weekend was the top of the table first division clash between Morton and Partick Thistle, which attracted a crowd of over five thousand, but nothing has been decided as the game ended 2-2 despite Thistle going two nil ahead. However, the slight advantage does seem to be with Partick, as they are eight points behind with three games in hand, the first of which is at home to Hamilton on Tuesday.
In the second division, Queen of the South continued their procession towards the title with a 5-0 win at Stranraer, whilst Rangers’ stroll to the third division title with a 4-1 win at Clyde, Little and Templeton each scoring twice.
Looking ahead to this week, there are two SPL fixtures on Tuesday, Celtic travelling to Perth to visit St. Johnstone whilst Motherwell face Dundee United. The weekend’s games include Inverness travelling to Hearts, and Motherwell’s trip to Ross County. The round-up will be back next week to cover it all.