Kai Watson: Heartbreak In Ayrshire
Every game until the end of the Scottish Premiership season will be massive and this weekend was no different. Celtic hosted Motherwell at 3PM on Saturday whilst Hearts travelled to Rugby Park for an 8PM kick-off. Then Rangers played yesterday to top off the top fours fixtures in gameweek 30.
Celtic definitely had the most difficult game on paper as the last time they played Motherwell they lost 2-0 at Fir Park and were played off the pitch. As expected, it was a very often match with both teams having plenty of shots at goal and possession in the opposition's final third.
It took until the 32nd minute for the deadlock to be broken and it was the visitors who took the lead! A mistake by Reo Hatate was pounced on by Elliot Watt who managed to play it to Slattery who slipped in Elijah Just and he cut across his shot which went in at the near post.
Motherwell then gifted Celtic the equaliser, a loose pass from Tom Sparrow in the box let Nygren nip in and his cross was palmed away by Ward but fell straight into Yang’s path and he calmly slotted it home on the 38th minute. Both sides had more chances but the biggest talking point of the game was the penalty and red card against Longelo in the 78th minute.
Correct decision for me and really sloppy defending in pulling Maeda down. Cvancara stepped up and coolly slotted the penalty home before some uncharacteristically poor defending saw a ball bounce right over the defence and Yang pounced, took a great touch then lifted the ball over Ward with his left foot.
Three points for Celtic and the pressure moved on to Hearts.
Hearts really caved to the pressure and weren’t their usual aggressive and positive selves. Findlay Curtis hit the post with a deflected shot early on before some good play on the right from Kiltie found Schonning-Larsen at the far post to put the home side ahead in the 15th minute.
Both ‘keepers made some decent saves but neither side created anything massively clear cut and that was the only goal of the game which cut Hearts lead at the top down to two points.
Rangers played St. Mirren in the early kick-off yesterday and, like the Hearts game, it was a match of little quality. Rangers were the better side and were denied a penalty when Raskin’s header hit Alex Gogic’s hand, do you think it should have been a penalty?
Rangers took the lead in the first-half when Raskin cut inside and whipped a lovely ball into the backpost on his left foot and the onrushing Tuur Rommens tucked it home. Chermiti had a great chance from a Rommens cross to make it 2-0 but couldn’t convert it, another big chance missed by the big striker.
St. Mirren didn’t offer much going forward but neither did Rangers in the second half apart from when George saved a brilliant Tavernier strike then the disallowed goal in the 90th minute when Moore squared to Aasgaard when he really should have taken it on himself.
The game finished 1-0 and it’s not one that will live long in the memory for either set of fans. This is how the table looks now;
Hearts - 63pts
Celtic - 61pts
Rangers - 60pts
There’s eight games to go and three before the split, who’s your favourite for the title?
Here are the latest odds from the leading UK betting sites for the Scottish Premiership outright winner market.
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