Rate it!

5 votes

Rangers beat Aberdeen 2-0 in the Scottish Premier League after leaders Celtic had earlier won 3-1 at St Mirren.

Second-half goals from Georgios Samaras, Shunsuke Nakamura and substitute Cillian Sheridan gave Celtic the victory at Love Street.

It was a comfortable win in the end for Gordon Strachan's side but the game arguably turned on the first-half incident in which Hoops keeper Artur Boruc was only yellow carded by referee Willie Collum for a 'last man' foul on Craig Dargo.

The home side scored a late consolation through substitute Jim Hamilton, who had replaced Dennis Wyness in the closing stages.

The lunchtime victory had put Celtic seven points clear but Rangers cut the gap back down to four later in the day following their 2-0 victory over Aberdeen.

Jean-Claude Darcheville opened the scoring early in the second half before Kris Boyd sealed the win by adding to his impressive tally for the campaign.

The 2-0 victory would have helped ease the frustration of having a last-gasp winner wrongly disallowed the last time the two teams met at Pittodrie earlier in the season, with referee Craig Thomson also the man in charge on that occasion.

A spectacular strike from Steven Fletcher was the highlight of an impressive Hibernian display as they emphatically beat Motherwell 4-1 to clinch their first win in seven SPL games.

John Rankin gave Hibs an early lead at Fir Park and they quickly recovered from losing the lead to Bob Malcolm's superb free-kick as Dean Shiels and Fletcher struck early in the second half.

Motherwell goalkeeper Graeme Smith had kept the score down but he was beaten in the last minute by Derek Riordan.

Andy Driver cemented third place in the league for Hearts with a great solo goal as they beat Falkirk 2-1.

Driver pounced on poor defending before darting clear of the Bairns defence and rounding the goalkeeper in the 69th minute.

Falkirk striker Steve Lovell gave the visitors the lead in the 16th minute after being played through by Michael Higdon, but Hearts equalised just three minutes later with a superb 20-yard free-kick from Aguiar.

An injury-time own goal from defender Brian Easton denied 10-man Hamilton a first win in 10 games and the chance to spring off the foot of the table as they drew 1-1 at Dundee United.

Richard Offiong's ninth-minute goal looked to have given Accies a rare victory but Dundee United finally got the equaliser they sought deep into time added on.

Simon Mensing was dismissed with eight minutes remaining after an off-the-ball altercation sparked by Craig Conway's push on the prostrate James McArthur.

And the visitors paid the price for a lack of numbers in defence as Conway's corner caused confusion and Easton appeared to get the last touch on Darren Dods' effort in a crowded goalmouth.

Mehdi Taouil missed an 89th-minute penalty as Kilmarnock lost 2-1 at home to Inverness, ballooning his late spot-kick over the crossbar in a grandstand finish.

Dougie Imrie had put Inverness ahead inside 15 minutes and Garry Wood doubled the visitors' advantage just before the interval by taking advantage of an error by Kilmarnock goalkeeper Alan Combe.

Home substitute Willie Gibson had thrown Kilmarnock a lifeline with his strike six minutes from time, but Taouil's miss cost his side a point.

Sporting Life / Eurosport