Football / Scottish Premier League: Celtic win, Rangers stay top

GLASGOW: Celtic warmed up for their midweek Champions League date against Aalborg with a 4-2 win over Motherwell yesterday but Rangers remained top of the Scottish Premier League with a 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock.
At Fir Park, the game had looked over as a contest at half-time with Celtic racing into a 4-0 lead with goals from Shaun Maloney, Scott McDonald and a double from Georgios Samaras.

Motherwell improved in the second-half and pulled two goals back through John Sutton and David Clarkson.

But despite dominating possession in the second period the home side could not get back on level terms as Celtic took all three points.

Strachan said the first 55 minutes of the match was Celtic at their best.
"That was as good as we have produced for a long time," said the Celtic manager.

"There was a great flow to the game. Everybody knew when the ball was getting passed and everybody was moving at the right time.

"I thought the football was absolutely magnificent. At the start of the second-half we could have wrapped it up really and there were a lot of good things to come out the game for us."

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee praised his players' second-half performance but admitted Celtic had been too good for his side.


"They were fast, they were inventive and we were out-powered and outclassed in every department," said McGhee, a former Celtic player.

Celtic took the lead with just four minutes on the clock when Scott Brown's pass across the face of goal found Maloney unmarked at the far post to sidefoot the ball in.

The Hoops doubled their lead just four minutes later when Samaras held off Motherwell defender Mark Reynolds to slide the ball under the advancing Graeme Smith.

Former Motherwell player McDonald made it three with 24 minutes gone. Samaras completed the first-half rout after 41 minutes.

Motherwell came out transformed in the second-half and pulled one back in the 54th minute as Sutton rifled in a volley from 16 yards out for his third goal in as many games since joining the club. Clarkson got Well's second just two minutes later.

At Ibrox, 10-man Rangers had a Kris Boyd second-half double to thank for their win against Kilmarnock.

Frazer Wright took advantage of an Allan McGregor error to fire Killie into a first-half lead, but Boyd converted a penalty in the 58th minute then fired in the winner minutes later before Sasa Papac saw red for his second bookable offence.

In other matches, St Mirren came from behind to defeat Inverness CT 2-1 away. Second-half goals from Billy Mehmet and Garry Brady cancelled out Adam Rooney's penalty.

A Steven Fletcher double gave Hibs a 2-1 win over Dundee United at Easter Road with Lee Wilkie scoring for the visitors.

Falkirk picked up their first points of the season with a 2-1 victory against Hearts with goals from Neil McCann and Scott Arfield. Michael Stewart scored for the Jambos.

Hamilton came from behind to defeat Aberdeen 2-1 at Pittodrie with David Graham and James McCarthy cancelling out Gary McDonald's opener.