Scottish Premiership: Celtic beat Hibs to close in on leaders Hearts

7 hours ago 8

Martin O’Neill continued his resuscitation of Celtic’s season by overseeing a fourth consecutive Premiership victory, away to Hibernian, on the day it emerged his caretaker stint is set to last a while longer.

The hard-fought 2-1 win, earned by first-half goals from Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels, moved the resurgent champions within two points of faltering Hearts with a game in hand.

It was widely expected the trip to Easter Road would represent O’Neill’s farewell outing, with the Hoops having planned to announce Wilfried Nancy as their new permanent boss on Monday. But the 73-year-old Northern Irishman revealed ahead of kick-off he had received a call on Saturday to say “the process is still ongoing” and that “there’s a really decent chance” he would still be in charge for Wednesday’s visit of Dundee.

Hibs presented the champions with the opener after 27 minutes. Playing out from the back, the goalkeeper Raphael Sallinger – under no real pressure – opted to pass to Miguel Chaiwa despite the fact he had Reo Hatate breathing down his neck. The Japanese midfielder nicked possession, advanced into the box and rolled it into the path of countryman Maeda, who slotted into the empty net from eight yards out.

Having looked comfortable until that point, Hibs suddenly found themselves two down within a minute when Yang Hyun-jun clipped in an inviting cross from the left and Engels stooped to power home a header from just outside the six-yard box.

Hibs came back into the match after the interval and they reduced the deficit in the 56th minute after being awarded a penalty. Jack Iredale’s goal-bound header from a Jordan Obita corner was deemed to have been blocked by the arm of Liam Scales after a video assistant referee check and Martin Boyle duly slotted his spot-kick to the left of Kasper Schmeichel, who remained rooted to the spot.

The hosts chased an equaliser thereafter but – aided by a big save from Schmeichel to deny Chris Cadden – Celtic held firm to make further ground on Hearts.

On Saturday, Hearts had their goalkeeper, Alexander Schwolow, to thank as they survived a late onslaught to claim a goalless draw against Motherwell. The German made a string of quality saves to keep out Motherwell, who also had two goals ruled out for offside.

Derek McInnes admitted he was disappointed with the way his Hearts side finished the game. “We spoke at half-time about more belief in our work and more belief to step into the game,” McInnes said. “We had some good moments and stifled Motherwell. I don’t think they had any rhythm.

“I thought the game was there to be won, but then in the last 15 minutes we took a step back again. We’ve got Alex to thank for our point – if anybody looked like they were going to win it, it was Motherwell.

“I thought we were good enough for our point, though not enough for three points.”

Despite failing to win for the third game on the spin, McInnes believes there is a need for perspective. Hearts are now five points ahead at the top of the Premiership, though nearest challengers Celtic have two games in hand.

McInnes said: “Our points tally is good. We’ve had one defeat in 14 games, we’re trying to get a bit of perspective. Everybody was getting a bit excited, and rightly so, at the start. Other than two or three games, every win has been hard fought.

“A lot of people leaning into this game were probably anticipating Motherwell beating us. It’s a point on the road. We came with a big support and a lot of expectation – it’s our fault the expectation has risen, and we’re all right with that.”

Dundee came from behind to end a run of four defeats and secure a 3-1 victory over St Mirren at Dens Park. St Mirren took the lead through Mikael Mandron, but the home side hit back twice before the break thanks to an Alex Gogic own goal and a cracker from Drey Wright before Joe Westley sealed the win late on with his side’s third.

The result lifted Dundee to ninth and relieved some of the pressure on Steven Pressley. St Mirren slipped to 10th after a third defeat on the bounce.

Jim Goodwin fumed at Matthew MacDermid’s hugely controversial decision to award Kilmarnock a penalty after Dundee United’s 1-1 draw at Rugby Park. Both struggling sides shared the spoils after Craig Sibbald levelled for United after the hosts opened the scoring on 34 minutes from the spot.

Referee MacDermid judged that Krisztian Keresztes barged into the back of Marley Watkins, but contact was extremely minimal. Dave Richards saved Bruce Anderson’s initial effort but the Kilmarnock striker slammed home the equaliser and Goodwin wasn’t pleased, at all, with the decision.

The United manager said: “The big talking point is the penalty kick that gets awarded to Kilmarnock. I can’t, for the life of me, having watched it back now half a dozen times after the game, believe that we’ve been done with a decision like that.

“I don’t understand how the referee is not called to the monitor to reassess the decision. And I think if he sees it again, I would be confident that he would have overturned it and not given the penalty.”

Later on Sunday, Danny Röhl will be hoping to build on his four-match winning streak in the league when Rangers host Falkirk. After two defeats in the Europa League, Röhl picked up a first point against Braga on Thursday.