Aluko celebrates

By Graham Barnstaple
February 12 2012

After another full round of fixtures it is pretty much as you were in the SPL this week, with Celtic still four ahead of Rangers and Dunfermline still bottom.

The first game up was Rangers away toDunfermlinein the early kick off with many pundits say this would be a tricky one for the title holders. It looked as though it might be when Andy Kirk opened the scoring for the Pars, but goals from David Healey and Lee McCulloch before half time changed everything.

Further goals in the second half from Sone Aluko and Kerkar put the seal on an emphatic victory for the Gers. This only goes to prove that despite all the talk of crisis at Ibrox their squad is still good enough to see off the rest of the SPL but might not be good enough to go all the way to win a fourth straight title.

Celtic restored their four point lead with a nervy win over Inverness atCelticParkwith Joe Ledley the scorer in a 1-0 win. They were down to ten men when Majstorovic was shown a straight red. As usual with Celtic there is talk right away they will consider appealing the red card, rather than accepting it with good grace.

Motherwell secured a point at St. Mirren in a 0-0 draw to maintain their six point gap over Hearts in the third place. This was an exciting nil nil draw with both keepers called upon to make excellent saves to keep their sides in it.

The first half almost summed up the season for the Buddies, they had plenty of possession without really hurting Motherwell, and we almost punished for this late on.

Hearts also drew on their visit toRugbyPark, but most of the focus was off the pitch. This was after the midweek spat between the two managers, before the game this brought about another handshake controversy with Sergio refusing to shake the hand of Kenny Shiels. Shiels also refused to speak to the press after the game.

The other team vying for third are St. Johnstone but they were hammered 5-1 at home to Dundee Utd. It didn’t help they scored the first two goals for the Arabs themselves, before conceding three in the closing stages.

United could yet be the dark horses to sneak up into third, they have exciting players in Mackay-Steven and Johnny Russell supporting the experienced Jon Daly. This may be the team Motherwell need to keep an eye on.