Sunday, October 21, 2012

SPL: Celtic ease home, Ross County down Hibs

Scottish Premier League review
Celtic hit St Mirren for 5 in a thrashing at St Mirren Park, keeping Neil Lennon's men top of the SPL.
Celtic warmed up for a trip to the Camp Nou by thrashing St Mirren 5-0 in Paisley.

Goals from Gary Hooper and Efe Ambrose, then Victor Wanyama's double, gave an under-strength Hoops side an unassailable interval lead against sorry-looking Saints.

Tony Watt scored with four minutes remaining to seal a commanding victory, which manager Neil Lennon would have wanted ahead of their Champions League Group G clash with Barcelona on Tuesday night.

Ross County came out on top over Hibernian 3-2 in a five goal thriller.
McMenamin came off the bench and made a big impact grabbing the winner with seven minutes remaining, which was his first goal of the season.

The five goal thriller kicked off in the sixth minute with Leigh Griffiths giving Hibs the lead in the sixth minute but Stuart Kettlewell levelled three minutes later for the home side. Iain Vigurs then gave County the lead in the 34th minute before Hibs struck straight back through James McPake just before the half time break.
Both teams looked like sharing the points with the game evenly balanced before super-sub McMenamic popped up with the deciding goal for Ross County.

St Johnstone took all three points with a win against Kilmarnock 2-1 at Rugby Park.
The win lifts St Johnstone to second place in the SPL and was their fifth straight win for the first time since 1971. Murray Davidson opened the scoring with a scrappy goal which was just reward for the home side's dominance.

St Johnstone should have been up even further early in the second half, however Nigel Hasselbaink failed to make the most of a great opportunity, firing wide when met with an open goal. Hasselbaink made up for his earlier miss, stretching the lead to two goals as he calmly converted past Kilmarnock keeper Cammy Bell with just a minute remaining.
Kilmarnock set hearts pounding late with James Fowler scoring from a fortunate deflection in injury-time however the goal proved nothing more than a consolation with time running out.

Dundee United and Aberdeen 1-1 shared the points in an entertaining New Firm derby.
Kickoff was delayed an additional 20 minutes due to a road closure nearby and both sides started slowly as a result.
Dundee looked like ending their disappointing run when John Rankin opened the scoring in the 22nd-minute, however that goal was cancelled out with eight minutes remaining in the second half with McGinn following up his goal in Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifier against Portugal with a neat finish late on.
Dundee could have sealed victory however in the 88th minute, but Rankin couldn't follow up on his earlier goal - firing wide across goal with team-mates open inside the box.

View the original article here

No comments:

Post a Comment

ST