1 week ago
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Callum McGregor scored a late winner as Celtic cut the gap on the Scottish Premiership leaders, Hearts, to four points with a 1-0 win over St Mirren in Paisley.
The below-par visitors failed to muster a shot on target for much of the match and almost fell behind when Declan John shot straight at Kasper Schmeichel with six minutes remaining. But McGregor, the Celtic captain, came to the rescue deep into added time when he lashed home the winner from 25 yards to claim the points for Martin O’Neill’s side.
O’Neill, the interim manager, described his skipper’s contribution as “absolutely massive” and added: “It was a great goal from a great player. The game was obviously heading for a draw. I’m not so sure that we deserved any more than that.
“He scores a fabulous goal. Strangely enough, he moved it out of his feet just at the edge of the box and I thought: ‘He could hit this’. So it was a great goal. Maybe it didn’t belong with the game, but it was just great to win.”
St Mirren had come closer to a breakthrough on several occasions before the added time. Conor McMenamin was close to converting from close range and then hit the post from 20 yards, before being penalised for offside after Liam Scales scooped the ball past Kasper Schmeichel into his own net.
The St Mirren manager, Stephen Robinson, felt the referee, Kevin Clancy, should have been asked to look at the decision again. Robinson, whose side have had a string of disallowed goals in recent games, said: “We lost to an incredible goal. I thought we were very good.
“I don’t think Shamal (George) had a save to make. We created numerous chances against Celtic. The fine margins of football at this moment in time are going against us.”
Mohamed Diomandé’s late goal gave Rangers a hard-fought 2-1 win over Livingston as the home side struggled badly on their return from a costly international break.
John Souttar, Derek Cornelius, Mikey Moore and Youssef Chermiti were all ruled out through injuries sustained with their countries. That allowed Emmanuel Fernandez to make his third start since signing from Peterborough in the summer and the 24-year-old centre-back headed his side in front after nine minutes.
Livi’s Australian striker Tete Yengi levelled after 18 minutes when he took advantage of awful defending and the home side’s overall play deteriorated, lacking urgency and guile. However, in the 78th minute Diomandé tapped into an empty net after Bojan Miovski had stretched to set him up for his first goal of the season.
Danny Röhl admitted that improvement was needed from his Rangers side, though praised their battling qualities. “Yesterday in the press conference I spoke about a dirty win, maybe today it was exactly this. I said to my team it was a hard-working victory but more than this, it’s three points. I wasn’t here a few weeks ago, but maybe a few weeks ago we wouldn’t win this game.”
Kieron Bowie provided a goal and assist as Hibernian swatted aside Dundee in a comfortable 2-0 victory. The striker broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark with a well-taken effort before then setting up Jamie McGrath for the second. Bowie had failed to score in his previous nine outings and it looked like his frustration would continue after he missed a gilt-edged chance just moments before scoring. But the Hibs head coach, David Gray, insisted he was never overly worried about Bowie’s struggles in front of goal.
“Strikers get confidence from scoring goals clearly, but I’ve had a lot of conversations with Kieron recently about what he actually does for the team. It’s not just scoring goals, I know that’s what they get judged on but the rest of the players certainly benefit from unselfish work he does for the team. But this will definitely do his confidence a world of good as well. He is still young. He’s 23 years old. Performances like today is what he needs to put in as regularly as he can.”
Falkirk stunned Dundee United at Tannadice to claim an emphatic 3-0 victory. The Bairns opened the scoring through Calvin Miller and then made it two before the break courtesy of an own goal from goalkeeper Yevhenii Kucherenko. Brian Graham made it three in the second half, with the scoreline in no way flattering the visitors who were in control throughout.
Jim Goodwin branded his Dundee United side’s performance “completely unacceptable” and “embarrassing”, adding: “Nobody’s position in the team is guaranteed. Everybody has to perform consistently well and we have to stop making these individual errors.”
Hearts, the leaders, are at Aberdeen on Sunday.
