Gap at top of the SPL remains the same.

After the six SPL games yesterday the gap remains nine points between Rangers and closest rivals Motherwell.

Rangers opened proceedings with a trip to Pittodrie, and despite losing their first away goal of the season they held on for a deserved 2-1 victory. Although the win was marred by the injury to top scorer Steven Naismith.

The scoreline was blank at half time in a half that had little to excite the crowd who turned up. Rangers took the lead through sub Kyle Lafferty before Nikica Jelavic made it two nil.

With just over five minutes left Alan McGregor made things interesting by letting a Ricky Forster cross squirm through his fingers. Despite that Rangers held on to put pressure on Celtic and Motherwell.

Motherwell responded well as they ground out a 3-2 win atInvernessdespite not being at their best on the day. They were a goal behind early on, David Davis scoring from the edge of the box.

Inverness were lucky to keep ten men on the part when Josh Meekings high tackle on Steven Hammell was only given a yellow card rather than a red it may have deserved. They weren’t so lucky just before the break when they lost an equaliser to a Shaun Hutchinson header.

Inverness scored with 14 minutes when Andrew Shinned beatRandolphfrom about 15 yards out. But Well bounced back and a stunning strike from Keith Lasley got them back on level terms.

Things go worse for the home side with three minutes left, Graeme Hogg was sent off for a foul on Murphy as he was about to shoot and Tom Hateley smashed the free kick high past Esson.

After humping Hibs in midweek in the League Cup Celtic were held to a goalless draw by theEdinburghside atCelticPark. This saw theGlasgowgiants fall 12 points behind Rangers and three behind second place Motherwell.

It will be interesting to see what happens if Rangers do end up in administration, will it give one of the other SPL teams any hope of not only splitting the Old Firm but of someone else breaking their title monopoly.

This still looks unlikely with only Motherwell showing any consistency with Hearts and St. Johnston also losing yesterday. Many will point out how thin Motherwell’s squad is and how this may prevent them from mounting a serious challenge but if Stuart McCall can keep his top eleven or twelve players fit who knows what might happen.