Luke McCowan scored on his first begin for Celtic because the champions went again to the highest of the Scottish Premiership with a 3-0 win at Motherwell.
Lennon Miller had twice hit the body of the aim for the hosts earlier than McCowan nicked the ball previous Kofi Balmer and drilled it into the underside nook from 18 yards to open the scoring within the twenty seventh minute.
Alistair Johnston headed Celtic two up 11 minutes into the second half and so they went on to take pleasure in their most snug win at Fir Park underneath Brendan Rodgers after Adam Idah netted late on.
The Motherwell centre-back Liam Gordon acquired a pink card after a video assistant referee intervention in stoppage time to spherical off their distress.
Rangers put their followers by means of the wringer once more earlier than operating out 2-1 winners towards a spirited St Mirren aspect at Ibrox.
After recovering from final week’s defeat at Kilmarnock with a convincing 4-0 Europa League win over the Romanian aspect FCSB in Govan on Thursday, Philippe Clement’s aspect, with their captain, James Tavernier, beginning on the bench, couldn’t discover their rhythm regardless of taking a Thirteenth-minute lead by means of Mohamed Diomande.
That lead was deservedly cancelled out by Alex Gogic’s header within the twenty sixth minute however as nervousness and frustration often cascaded down from the stands Vaclav Cerny, who scored a double towards FCSB, got here to the rescue within the 69th minute when he popped up with the winner.
The Gentle Blues stay in third place, six factors behind Celtic and Aberdeen, and now put together for the journey to Pittodrie on Wednesday nonetheless and not using a everlasting chairman, chief govt and director of soccer and with sad supporters once more demonstrating their discontent with banners.
Neil Critchley praised James Wilson’s poacher’s intuition after the 17-year-old Hearts striker stepped off the bench to attain a late Edinburgh derby equaliser at Hibernian. The academy graduate latched on to a protracted throw and netted from shut vary within the 87th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw after Mykola Kuharevich’s Sixty fifth-minute opener for Hibs.
Wilson has made simply six sub appearances for Hearts and this was his second aim in consecutive video games underneath Critchley, after his first for the membership towards St Mirren final weekend. “Implausible, however that’s him, he’s a goalscorer, a aim poacher,” mentioned the Hearts supervisor. “That’s what goalscorers do. They only arrive in the fitting place on the proper time, and so they discover a method of hitting the again of the web.”
David Grey felt their lapse for Wilson’s aim undermined an in any other case encouraging efficiency. “I don’t assume anyone may deny that we deserved to win the sport on possibilities created,” mentioned the Hibs supervisor. “For 99% of the sport, I assumed we have been wonderful defensively, however we’ve dropped two factors once more, in my view.”