Rangers close in on Celtic

After being written off after last week’s Old Firm defeat Rangers are back in the race with Celtic losing at Fir Park and Rangers winning at home to St. Johnstone.

First up it was Celtic taking on Motherwell in the Sky game at Fir Park and no one saw the result of this one coming, as goals in either half from John Sutton sealing a 2-0 win for the home team.

Celtic got off to a poor start and could’ve been two goals down in the first two minutes, but were lucky to be only one down. The man at the centre of the problems was Charlie Mulgrew, in the opening minute he mis-timed a challenge allowing Chris Humphrey through but he was denied by Majstorovic.

A minute later Mulgrew missed a long ball from Gunning allowing Sutton to nip and prod the ball around Forster before sliding in from an acute angle. Motherwell were taking the game to Celtic and could’ve been further ahead if there had been more composure from Murphy and Humphrey.

Celtic did respond and Randolph was called upon to save from Stokes at close range and then from a Brown long range effort.

Motherwell’s Shaun Hutchinson hit the bar from a corner at the start of the second half before Izaguirre fouled Lasley in the box and Sutton blasted the spot kick high past a helpless Forster.

Once again it was Motherwell who reacted best to this goal and were the more dangerous throughout the half and deserved their win, ending Celtic’s 17 game unbeaten run and opening the door for Rangers once again.

The Champions didn’t blow the opportunity when they took on St. Johnstone at Ibrox, as they dumped the Saints by four goals to nil. A double for Jelavic ensured there was no slip up. He fired in the opener after four minutes at Ibrox with a fine volley as he latched on to a loose ball.

Jody Morris forced Rangers keeper Allan McGregor into a superb save before Kyle Lafferty headed the home side's second four minutes short of the break.

Papac's fine finish made it 3-0 on 81 minutes and Jelavic swept in another for the home side in stoppage time. The victory ensured that the Ibrox men capitalised on Celtic's slip up earlier in the day, and leaves them only five points behind with two games in hand.

There is much talk about the psychology of who is ahead, but whichever of the two teams wins all of their games then they will win the title. Therefore both still have it in their own hands to win the Championship.