Saturday, September 15, 2007

Celtic v Inverness




Celtic cruised to the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League for the first time this season with a 5-0 thrashing of Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Parkhead.

The champions leapfrogged Rangers, beaten earlier in the day at Hearts, with strikes from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who scored twice, Massimo Donati and Shunsuke Nakamura, with a Phil McGuire own goal compounding the visitors' misery.

Celtic will fly to Ukraine ahead of their Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk boosted by the convincing win, while the SPL's bottom side remain without a point.

Rangers suffered their first defeat of the season as Hearts belatedly kick-started their own campaign with a 4-2 victory at Tynecastle.

The match had six goals, seven bookings and a penalty at each end.

Goals from Andrew Driver, Ibrahim Tall, Michael Stewart and Kestutis Ivaskevicius meant Hearts ran out winners, with Rangers now having to regroup before their Champions League opener against Stuttgart on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the SPL, Falkirk and third-placed Hibs fought out a 1-1 draw at the Westfield but it was referee Willie Collum who provided the talking points for dishing out three red cards.

Clayton Donaldson gave the visitors a fourth minute lead from the penalty spot and was then given his marching orders prior to the break after being shown a second yellow card for a tackle on Steven Thomson.

The Bairns equalised in the 47th minute through Pedro Moutinho but lost their numerical advantage when Darren Barr was shown a second yellow for dissent.

With just seconds remaining, Patrick Cregg was ordered off for a late tackle on Thierry Gatheussi.

Two goals in three minutes during the first half saw Motherwell defeat Aberdeen 2-1 to record their third away win of the season.

Mark McGhee's side took the lead through a fine 20-yard drive by Paul Quinn in the 34th minute and Chris Porter then collected a Phil O'Donnell pass to score with a low shot.

Jamie Smith reduced the deficit midway through the second period with a wonderful free-kick, but shot-shy Aberdeen could not fashion an equaliser in the closing stages.

And it was a similar story in the day's other game as first-half goals by Kilmarnock's Willie Gibson and Ryan Jarvis helped sink Gretna 2-1.

Gibson curled home a brilliant early goal at Fir Park and Jarvis finished clinically for his first Kilmarnock goal.

Gretna striker Colin McMenamin missed a penalty three minutes after Killie's second and Gavin Skelton's excellent injury-time strike came too late for Gretna to launch a comeback and they remain second from bottom with just a point to their name.

HAIL! HAIL!

TomC