Scottish Premiership: Celtic and Rangers go into winter break with wins
Matt O’Riley provided a goal and assist inside the first six minutes as Celtic cruised to a 3-0 victory over 10-man St Mirren. Daizen Maeda and Greg Taylor were also on target in Paisley as Celtic went into the Premiership winter break eight points clear of Rangers, who have two games in hand.
St Mirren’s Toyosi Olusanya was sent off in first-half stoppage-time after catching the Celtic goalkeeper, Joe Hart, in the face with a high boot.
The champions had gone ahead after just 56 seconds when O’Riley collected Callum McGregor’s pass and played the ball inside the St Mirren wing-back Scott Tanser for Maeda to run on to and beat Zach Hemming. O’Riley soon had his 10th league goal of the season. Luis Palma fed Paulo Bernardo’s run into the box and the Portuguese midfielder spun past Alex Gogic and teed up O’Riley, who sidestepped Tanser and slotted through Hemming’s legs.
St Mirren’s only first-half effort was an off-target strike from Olusanya, who later went in with a raised boot as Hart punched the ball clear. The referee,
David Munro, initially booked the forward but was called to his monitor by VAR and upgraded it to a red.
In the second half Hemming made a brilliant save from O’Riley shortly before Bernardo’s beautiful lofted pass set up Taylor to volley home from six yards on the hour.
Rangers quickly swept away their Old Firm frustrations with a 3-1 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox. The loss to Celtic was a first defeat for the manager, Philippe Clement, but late firsthalf goals from attackers Ross McCausland
and Abdallah Sima gave them a commanding lead. Kilmarnock fought back and Danny Armstrong reduced the deficit on 58 minutes with a penalty awarded after a VAR intervention. However, Todd Cantwell soon restored the two-goal cushion.
Kenneth Vargas and Lawrence Shankland scored second-half goals as in-form Hearts held out for a 2-1 win at struggling Livingston to tighten their grip on third place. Hearts, whose top scorer Shankland saw a penalty saved at 0-0, endured a nervy finale after Livingston pulled one back through an Andrew Shinnie spot-kick in the 79th minute.
Elie Youan struck late to rescue a point for hosts Hibernian against Motherwell in a 2-2 draw. It looked as if the visitors were set for an impressive victory after Theo Bair and Bevis Mugabi cancelled out Youan’s opener. But Hibs salvaged a point in added time when Youan’s shot found the net with the aid of a deflection.
Aberdeen eased their relegation fears with a 3-0 win at fellow strugglers Ross County. A first-half double from Jamie McGrath was added to in the 80th minute by Bojan Miovski as the Dons moved four points above secondfrombottom County. St Johnstone’s trip to Dundee fell victim to the weather.