Scottish roundup: Celtic put seven past hapless Dundee but Rangers stay top
Celtic hit form with a 7-1 victory against Dundee following a first-half goal spree at Parkhead, but Rangers maintained their advantage at the top of the Premiership after a hard-fought 2-1 comeback win against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
Cameron Carter-Vickers started Celtic’s rout in the seventh minute and goals from Adam Idah, Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda had Celtic four up before the half-hour.
Greg Taylor and Callum McGregor made it six before the break and Daniel Kelly marked his league debut with a brilliantly taken goal.
Dundee were down to 10 men through Finlay Robertson’s red card when they pulled a goal back from Michael Mellon, although the atmosphere had already lost a bit of an edge following Rangers’ comeback at Kilmarnock.
The Killie wide-man Danny Armstrong had scored from the spot in the 11th minute of an energetic first half and Derek McInnes’s team were worth their interval lead.
The Gers had to dig deep and the captain, James Tavernier, levelled in the 55th minute with a trademark free-kick before the midfielder Tom Lawrence scored with a fine finish just four minutes later as the visitors reasserted themselves.
With 10 league games remaining – five before the split – Philippe Clement’s team are two points ahead of Celtic.
The Hearts forward Lawrence
Shankland scored his 26th goal of the season from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw at home against their city rivals Hibernian.
The Easter Road side went ahead through the on-loan Bournemouth playmaker Emiliano Marcondes. But they were pegged back just before the break when Hearts were awarded a contentious spot-kick, and the in-form Shankland fired home his sixth Edinburgh derby goal since moving to Tynecastle in the summer of 2022.
Aberdeen remain at risk of being drawn into a relegation battle after the toothless Dons sank to defeat against St Johnstone. Nicky Clark’s penalty late in the first half opened the scoring and Benjamin Kimpioka scored a second 13 minutes from time. The win moves Craig Levein’s Saints level on points with the Dons as the two sides seemingly head on opposite trajectories.
Motherwell came from behind to beat the bottom side Livingston 3-1 and enhance their top-six hopes. Livingston
had taken the lead after only three minutes through Tete Yengi but Sam Nicholson levelled minutes into the second half before Blair Spittal notched a sublime goal. Jack Vale, on as a substitute, compounded Livingston’s woes with a third in the 87th minute.
Motherwell climbed to within three points off the top six, while Livingston sit seven points adrift at the foot of the table.