Well, not quite familiar. For one, what’s Motherwell doing there? St Mirren, 7th?! And how come Hearts are sitting fourth from bottom? And do Aberdeen really deserve to be in 5th considering their pure keech start to the season?
So aye, Celtic reclaim top spot in the SPL thanks to their 2-1 win over Hearts in Glasgow. Dutch defender Glen Loovens scored in a header in extra-time to clinch all three points. Hearts had earlier taken the lead through Suso, before Chris Killen equalized after the break.
A late goal from Charlie Mulgrew sees Aberdeen win 1-0 over 10-man St Mirren in a game with only 4 shots on target (all by Aberdeen).
Elsewhere there where also wins for Motherwell against Dundee United. A Ross Forbes penalty in the 65th minute put an end to United’s unbeaten record.
In the highest scoring game of the weekend, Hibernian put three past St Johnstone without reply and in the battle of the relegation candidates, neither Falkirk nor Hamilton where able to build on last week´s results. The football on show was pretty poor, with the 0-0 probably the right results. Accies lost Derek Lyle early on in that game: he was taken to hospital after his studs got stuck in the turf. Scans later showed he’d suffered ligament damage and will miss the rest of the season.
Down in Division 1, Ross County remain top of the league after their 2-1 win over Ayr United. Goals from Steven Craig and Richard Brittain secured all three points for the Dingwall side. Both teams finished the game with only 10-men each after County’s Alex Keddie and Ayr’s Neil McGowan where sent off late in the game.
Chasing County all the way are Raith Rovers and Queen of the South. Raith beat bottom side Morton 3-0 to retain their unbeaten start to their first season back in Division 1. Queen of the South beat pre-season promotion candidates Dundee 2-0 down in Dumfries. Veteran Dundee keeper Rab Douglas made another appearance for the Dee’s – he replaced Tony Bullock in goal after he’d been sent off for scything down David Weatherston. Douglas’ first job then was to pick the ball out of the net.
Elsewhere Partick Thistle picked up three points to move them into fourth spot – the Jags won 2-0 against Dunfermline. Jonathan Hayes’ late goal turned defeat into a draw for Caley in their game against Airdrie. Ryan Esson, the Inverness keeper saved a penalty earlier on in the game. John Baird scored for the home side.
Dumbarton are continuing to find life back in the Second Division hard going – they lost 3-0 at home to newly promoted Cowdenbeath. Stirling Albion took advantage of Alloa’s defeat away at Stenhousemuir to move top of the Second division with a 3-0 demolition of East Fife. Clyde record their first win of the campaign as they beat Brechin 1-0, and Peterhead move into 6th place after they beat Arbroath 1-0.
Elgin City and Berwick Rangers played out the highest-scoring game in senior football today. Berwick took an early 2-0 lead, but two goals from Craig Gunn had the sides level going into halftime. Ian Little put Berwick back in the lead and seemed to be cruising to victory when Mark Nicolson equalized again for Elgin.
The point lifts Elgin City 2 points clear of bottom side Montrose, who lost 3-0 at home to East Stirling. Forfar remain top of the table following their 1-1 draw at Albion Rovers.
Neither Queen’s Park or Annan Atletic could find the net in front of 581 people at an obviously deserted Hampden Park, and there’s good news at last for Livingston as they pick up their first away points of the season; goals from Andrew Halliday two from Raffaele De Vitahey saw them ease past Stranraer.
In the Highland League the problems continue for Fort William. A narrow 8-0 defeat away at Buckie Thistle puts them back to the bottom of the league (albeit level on points with Rothes, who lost 4-1 at home to Inverurie). New boys Strathspey Thistle, who seemed to be doing their best to take over Fort William’s crown of ‘Gashest Team in football today’ somewhat surprisingly got a point when they drew 0-0 with another newly promoted team, Turriff United.
Defending champions Cove Rangers overcame Wick Academy 3-2, and there where also wins for Clachnacuddin, Deveronvale, Forres Mechanics and Nairn County. Formartine United and Huntly played out an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Cove Rangers remain top, with Deveronvale, Inverurie and Huntly all less then 3 points away. At the bottom we’ve got three teams who, between them have conceded more goals than all the teams in the SPL combined (88), Strathspey, Fort William and Rothes.
Related posts:
- Damn you Andrew Little! (or: “The Scottish Fitba Review”)
- The Week in Scottish Football
- The Scottish Football Four to Follow
- The Ballbag’s Scottish Football Four to Follow
- The Monday Ballbag
Tags: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Falkirk, Hamilton, Hearts, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Rangers, Roundup, SFL, SPL, St Johnstone, St. Mirren
“For one, what’s Motherwell doing there?”
A false position indeed. If they hadn’t missed that penalty in the 86th minute against Rangers last week, they’d have been top of the league on Saturday night!
[...] See the original post here: 21.08// Scottish Football Gala Roundup [...]
Hopefully another team can keep it up at the top. Would be great to see Motherwell in the top two.
It’s always good to see the OF split, though I can’t see it happening any time soon. In much the same way we have a ‘top 2′, we also have a ‘middle 4′, i.e, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, United and a ‘bottom 6′, Killie, Motherwell, Hamilton, St Mirren, Falkirk plus whoever comes up from the First division. It’s just the natural order of things, unfortunately unless something very dramatic happens.
Hearts – my tip for third this season – are floundering (even though it’s early days, mind) in the same way that Motherwell did after their sucessful season.