Cinch Scottish Premiership: Three Things we Learned as Celtic Fall to First League Defeat in 364 Days
The top-flight of Scottish football returned last weekend after the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II…
Goals on either side of the break give St. Mirren a shock win over Celtic
A heavily rotated team by Ange Postecoglou saw Aaron Mooy and Anthony Ralston get their first starts of the season. Stephen Welsh and David Turnbull also started ahead of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Matt O’Riley.
Surprisingly, Celtic struggled to break St Mirren down from the get-go with chances hard to come by. And in the 43rdminute it was St. Mirren that broke the deadlock, Mark O’Hara got on the end of Ryan Strain’s cross and headed home the opener, as the hosts went into the interval with a slender lead.
In the 53rd minute, Joseph Ayungu was first to react to a loose ball from a throw-in as he doubled the Buddies’ advantage ultimately sealing all three points against the champions.
This win puts St. Mirren up to fourth place with Celtic’s gap at the top of the league being shortened to two points.
A win at last for Rangers in unconvincing performance over United
Rangers came into this game on the back of suffering three consecutive losses, but facing a manager-less Dundee United with one win in their last eight games – they were still heavy favourites.
Rangers started the game strongly with three clear-cut chances created within the first nine minutes. Ryan Kent and Scott Arfield both missed the target, but Antonio Colak made no mistake in slotting the ball home. Although they started with conviction, the hosts began to take their foot off the gas with Dundee United finding it easy to create chances on the break.
In the 48th minute, Colak grabbed his second goal of the match, getting on the end of a Borna Barisic cross. 10 minutes later, Dundee United would make one of their chances count with a well-worked move on the edge of the Rangers’ box resulting in a Liam Smith goal.
A testament to Rangers’ performance would be the fact they took the ball to the corner flag to run the clock down. A performance Rangers fans won’t be happy with, but they pick up their first win of the month and close the gap on Celtic.
Hibernian come from behind to beat 10-men Aberdeen
Aberdeen started off the game with real intent, making a Hibs win seem unlikely as Luis Lopes headed in a Hayden Coulson cross in the fourth minute.
The match was lively and the tackles were flying in. Anthony Stewart, Noah Kenneh and Liam Scales were all booked in the first-half, but it got worse for the latter. Just a minute before the interval Liam Scales was punished for wrestling Ryan Porteous at a corner and received his second yellow card – resulting in a penalty for the hosts. Martin Boyle stepped up and made no mistake from the spot as both teams went into the break one apiece.
The Hibees stamped their footprint on the game after the re-start with manager, Lee Johnson, calling his side “the real deal”. A brace from Josh Campbell sealed a 3-1 win for his side as the Easter Road club climbed into the top-half of the table.
Scottish Premiership Results:
Saturday 17 September
Hibernian 3-1 Aberdeen
Livingston 1-0 Kilmarnock
Rangers 2-1 Dundee United
St. Johnstone 0-0 Ross County
Sunday 18 September
St. Mirren 2-0 Celtic
Motherwell 0-3 Heart of Midlothian