SPL wrap: Celtic edge past Hibernian

SPL wrap: Graham Barr reflects on all the action from the Scotland as Celtic beat Hibernian

By The Sport Review
Monday 16 December 2013, 14:30 UK

Strong winds and heavy rained battered Scottish football which made the playing of quality football more than difficult this wekeend.

Dundee United continued their fine run of form with a 4-1 victory away to ten-man Kilmarnock.

The home were reduced to ten men in the first half but it took Jackie McNamara’s men an hour to take the lead through Kieth Watson.

Three late goals from Stuart Armstrong, Goodwillie and the impressive Ryan Gauld were enough to ensure United remain hot on the tails of second-placed Inverness.

John Hughes got his first win as Inverness boss against a Hearts side destined for the Championship.

Hearts could only include 12 first-team players in their squad and never really looked like taking anything from the game and a second half double from in-form Barry McKay ensured the three points would go to the Highland side.

Hearts only managed one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes and remain bottom of the table with -3 points.

Meanwhile, top of the table Celtic recovered from the 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Barcelona to maintain their unbeaten record in the Scottish Premiership.

Teemu Pukki scored the only goal of what was a fairly uneventful game in which Hibs had set out to frustrate Celtic.

Near the end Butcher’s men came close to an equaliser when they pushed extra men forward but couldn’t quite get the goal they needed.

Despite this, Hibs will be fairly satisfied with their performance against a Celtic side that had scored 12 goals in their previous two games in Scotland.

Further North, Aberdeen kept up the pressure on Inverness and Dundee United in the battle for second place with a 2-0 victory against St Mirren.

Goals from Scott Vernon and Barry Robson either side of half time were enough for the Dons to ease to a comfortable victory.

St Mirren had very few chances in a game which Aberdeen deserved to take the three points.

Elsewhere, a first-half double from John Sutton set Motherwell on their way to a 2-1 victory against eleventh placed Ross County.

However, they replied through De Leeuw in the second half and had an equaliser chopped off with just over twenty minutes left to play.

Motherwell had to hold on in the end and although Stuart McColl may not be delighted with the performance, he will certainly be happy with the three points.

In the final game of the weekend’s fixtures Partick Thistle against St Johnstone was abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch at half time.