Rangers on a Rohl, Celtic late winner and Hearts broken - Scottish Premiership Round 13 Review

Scottish Premiership Review - Round 13

Good-win for The Bairns, Badloss for The Tangerines

Dundee United 0-3 Falkirk Miller (4’), Kucherenko OG (21’), Graham (63’)

Jim Goodwin's Dundee United were looking to get back to winning ways after winning only one in their last six Premiership matches, not an easy task against Falkirk who have been impressive in their return to the Premiership.

The Bairns took the lead early on; Calvin Miller raced on through to goal and fired a shot which was saved by United keeper Yevhen Kucherenko but parried back into the path of Miller who slotted home. In truth, it was a really bad afternoon for Kucherenko, and it was to get worse after only 22 minutes on the clock; Calvin Miller put in an in-swinging corner to the near post with the United goalkeeper tried to punch clear, but ending up diverting the ball into his own net.

United could have halved the deficit before half-time; Amar Fatah's header had Scott Bain beat, but it rattled off the crossbar to deny the Swede. United would have to really work for it in the second half.

Early in the second half, Brian Graham barged into United defender Kristian Keresztes off the ball which led to an on-field VAR review, Nick Walsh took a long look at the incident but decided against a red card and produced a yellow card instead.

Then, the Falkirk striker got on the scoresheet himself; a good ball from Calvin Miller to the big striker, Kucherenko hesitated to race out of his goal in the first place and Graham rounded him and put the ball into the empty net securing the win for John McGlynn's side.

This was Falkirk's first win in eight top-flight matches at Tannadice, ironically enough the last time they won there it was also 3-0. The Bairns remain in fifth place whereas consistency issues for United continue.

Gray Day for Dundee

Hibernian 2-0 Dundee Bowie (30’), McGrath (59’)

Hibs came into the game raring to go, after they will have been disappointed at the timing of the international break, as they were just coming into form. Dundee’s only win in their last seven games was against Celtic, so Hibs had to keep alert, as its clear The Dee are able to cause an upset on their day when written off.

Hibs started off the better team and it remained that way for most of the game. Kieron Bowie had a golden opportunity to open the scoring just fifteen minutes in but missed a seemingly impossible to miss chance from inside the six-yard box as his header sailed over the bar.

Just fifteen minutes later, he put it right, as he made no mistake putting his next chance into the back of the Dundee net. It wasn’t until just before the hour mark when the next goal would come, and it was all-important second for the Hibees that the Easter Road crowd had been waiting for.

Dundee did come back fighting, creating multiple chances in the attempt of a late fight-back, but it was no avail, as Raphael Sallinger and his defence in-front of him matched whatever came their way.

In the end, Hibs took all three points, , were back in third. An impressive display from Kieron Bowie especially after the big miss early on, to come back and perform despite it shows he’s ready to fight for a place on next summer’s plane to the USA.

Kettle gets Boiled

Kilmarnock 1-3 Motherwell Tiffoney (39’), Maswanhise (16’, 26’), Stamatelopoulos (68’)

It was a feisty battle in the Stuart Kettlewell derby, as there was a total of 27 fouls and 6 yellows in the match. There had been four draws in their last seven meetings so many were betting on a stalemate.

The game started slow, with Tawanda Maswanhise’s 16th minute opener arguably coming against the run of play. From there, Motherwell had a flurry of chances, with Maswanhise quickly grabbing his second of the game.

The half-time team-talk from Stuart Kettlewell must have spurred up something in the Kilmarnock team, as they grabbed one back just four after the restart and pushed for some time to get the equaliser. But when Stamatelopoulos notched Motherwell’s third in the 68th minute, it was game over.

The win means the Steelmen have now opened up a four point gap between them and 7th, as the league table starts to form and see who is really in the battle for top 6. Their next two games are against an in-form Hibs side, and league-leaders Hearts, so they will do well to keep that lead for long.

Rangers on a Rohl

Rangers 2-1 Livingston Fernandez (9’), Yengi (18’), Diomande (78’)

After his shaky start in European competition, Danny Rohl has certainly steadied the ship at Rangers, winning all of his first four league games, catapulting Rangers up the league table to a more respectable 4th. They sit just five points behind Celtic and could possibly be right back in the running if Rohl can play his cards right. Something no one could have expected just a short time ago.

Rangers hadn’t lost to Livingston since 2018 and were looking to extend that streak. Despite dominating possession for the majority of the game and looking dominant at times, Rangers struggled to carve out many clear cut chances, with Livingston actually creating more big chance than rangers (3 to 2).

Rangers found an early lead through their 6’4 centre-back Emmanuel Fernandez in the 9th minute, but that lead lasted just nine more minutes, as Tete Yengi equalised on a fast break. The game was cagey but Livingston defended well and looked as if they may hang on for a point. That was until the 78th minute, when Mohamed Diomande stepped up and fired The Gers into a lead they held onto this time.

Three more vital points and suddenly the Ibrox faithful are feeling a lot more positive about things.

Late McGregor Zinger Stuns the Saints with a Stinger

St. Mirren 0-1 Celtic McGregor (90+5’)

Martin O'Neill probably didn't expect to still be the interim Celtic manager after the international break, but he and Shaun Maloney led the team once again in Paisley as they look to extend a good record over St. Mirren, winning 12 of the last 14 games before Saturday against the Buddies.

Surprisingly, Stephen Robinson's side had the best of the opportunities in the first half, Conor McMenamin’s shot slid just wide early on and also had an effort smashed against the post. Celtic were probably in second or even third gear throughout the first half and the Buddies were bright throughout but couldn't take any chances.

They thought their luck had come in the second half when Liam Scales turned the ball into his own net, but McMenamin was deemed offside in the build-up to the goal.

It just wasn't the Buddies day and they had to deal with a late sucker punch. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Callum McGregor picked the ball up from around 30 yards from goal and struck a rocket straight into the top corner past Shamal George, snatching the win and all three points for Celtic.

St. Mirren are now on a six-match winless run in the Premiership. Their loss would have felt all too familiar, as Celtic needed a Luke McCowan goal in the 87th minute back in August to win the game. As for Celtic, they won away from home in the league for the first time since defeating Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on the 14th of September and have closed the gap to Hearts to just four points with a game in hand.

Aberdeen Break the Streak, Hearts Left Weak

Aberdeen 1-0 Hearts Keskinen (39’)

Leaders Hearts perhaps wouldn't have handpicked Pittodrie for the first game to play after the international break, as their last league win at Aberdeen came in May of 2016 when Derek McInnes was still the Dons manager. A task that was to be made even tougher as they were without one of Scotland's heroes in midweek, Lawrence Shankland, after a training ground injury on Friday.

The Jambos probably had the game's first real clearcut chance; Claudio Braga's shot was blocked but it teed up Harry Milne for a shot at goal, Dimitar Mitov was beaten but it clipped the crossbar and out for a goal kick.

It was an entertaining first half full of tackles, and lots of attacking play being played at a high tempo, but no real clear cut chances; that was until Jack Milne picked out Topi Keskinen with a pass over the top, Keskinen's first effort was blocked but fell straight back into his path and he took advantage of having a second chance, finding the far corner of Alexander Schwolow's goal.

Hearts took more control of the match from the opening minutes of the second half; Alexandros Kyziridis, who was playing in his preferred out wide role compared to be played centrally in the first half, had a strike deflected in the Aberdeen penalty area, eventually finding Tomas Magnusson whose header went straight into the hands of Dimitar Mitov.

Claudio Braga then produced a great save from Mitov, the Portuguese forward looked certain to score but Mitov made a great block with Jack Milne sliding in to clear the ball before Braga could pounce onto it. In truth, Hearts were throwing everything at Aberdeen to get the equaliser, after a stramash in the penalty box the ball broke kindly to Pierre Landry Kabore but he took a wild swipe and his shot went miles wide of the target. Hearts had ran out of time to fashion an equaliser, and had suffered their first league defeat of the season.

A first league defeat for the league leaders means now Hearts are without a league win in Aberdeen in 14 visits and it's now one win in four games, with the gap at the top of the table reduced to four points. As for the Dons, who defended very well throughout the second half, they have won four of their last six games in the Premiership and are up to 8th.