If you don’t have time to keep up with Scottish football but always wonder if anything happens other than Rangers vs Celtic, Craig brings you CaughtOffside’s quick and dirty update on everything kilted.
Rangers delayed Celtic’s title party for a couple more weeks by recording a 1-0 victory at Celtic Park. Ugo Ehiogu scored the only goal with an amazing overhead kick, just days after having possibly the worst ever individual defensive performance in the history of football in the 1-1 home draw against Osasuna. With 8 games to go Celtic are 16 points clear, so the defeat only delays the inevitable.
Meanwhile, with 3 matches remaining until the ‘split’, the top 6 and bottom 6 places are basically settled, after Kilmarnock beat Inverness CT 3-2 and Hibs beat Falkirk 2-0. Inverness can still match Killie and Hibs’ totals but they still have to visit Ibrox, so it would be a huge ask for the Highlanders.
Aberdeen 1-0 Hearts
Celtic 0-1 Rangers
Dundee Utd 1-1 Motherwell
Dunfermline 0-0 St Mirren
Hibernian 2-0 Falkirk
Kilmarnock 3-2 Inverness CT
This Sunday, around 46,000 Kilmarnock and Hibs fans will head for Hampden for the CIS Cup final. Killie fans have enlisted Rolf Harris to sing a Killie version of his song “Fine Day†which has been adopted as an anthem for Australian winger Danny Invincible. The song may even make the charts – so listen out for it on Radio 1 this Sunday, or have a listen here.
On the pitch, it looks set to be an even affair, with this season’s 3 meetings resulting in a win each and a draw. Both sides play open, attractive football and it should be a good spectacle. You can see the game live on BBC1 Scotland at 3pm on Sunday. As a Killie fan, I’m personally hoping for a repeat of this moment from earlier this season.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the news that Scotland have reached their highest ever position in the world rankings (16th), Alex McLeish has named his first squad for the qualifiers against Georgia and Italy. For some reason, he has named as many goalkeepers as strikers in the squad (4). Darren Fletcher and James McFadden are both injured, so it will be interesting to see whether McLeish can overcome the loss of arguably the 2 most influential players. However, with a goalkeeper of the quality of Craig Gordon, anything is possible. In attack, Craig Beattie (3 goals this season) and Shaun Maloney (0 goals) were selected ahead of Steven Naismith (16 goals). No prizes for guessing which players have played or are currently playing for the Old Firm. At least Hibs’ exciting midfielder Scott Brown is finally in the squad. Anyway, as long as the players do the job on the pitch, they will have my full support.