Only a week left of the regular season in the Premiership but the thrills, twists and Jambos losing continues. Highlights of every match from Rangers to Cove Rangers and every team in between are below.
Rangers hosted Celtic in the last Glasgow derby of the season Rangers had beaten Celtic 1-0 the last time the sides met at Ibrox but Steven Gerrard’s trips to Celtic Park have been a disaster. Celtic looked sluggish and poor from the get-go, perhaps a hangover from the title celebrations of the week before had got the better off them. Rangers, however, look enthused, energetic and dangerous going forward. Despite the good play from the Ibrox team on-loan striker, Defoe threw himself to the ground in what must have been the worst dive of the season, well worth his £30k wage. As the game went on Rangers grew and grew to dominate the tie. The only controversy coming from Flanagan's elbow to Scott Brown's neck, it probably should have been a red card but The Gers were streets ahead of Celtic for the first time in what must seem like a long time for the Rangers fans. Allan McGregor will be kicking himself that he missed the game as Celtic rarely tested Foderingham. Sadly once again the tie was marred with the scenes from the stands as the capacity crowd Belted out the Billy Boys with gusto and an audible minority sang about the Lisbon Lions at perhaps the most inappropriate time possible, this is the sectarian element on show again Dave King has already said he “abhors” this and “will continue to do everything we can at our club to root sectarianism out” It’s time to cut back on the strongly worded press release and show some backbone by punting these imbeciles out the ground and as far from his club and Scottish Football as possible. Celtic fans are probably also hoping to see Neil Lennon booted as far as possible after a fairly poor second spell in charge.
At the start of the weekend European chasing, Aberdeen were hoping for a good result over a very poor Hearts team as they looked to gain advantage on any Killie slip up. Aberdeen did the business with a really comfortable 2-1 win over the Edinburgh side and will probably be cheering on Celtic in the Scottish Cup final and a win for Celtic would mean the top 4 playing in Europe giving Aberdeen a safety blanket if they fail to beat Hibs and Killie don’t lose against Rangers. Dons captain Graeme Shinnie made his last appearance at Pittodrie as he prepares to make the move to Derby County in the summer, he will be a massive player for Aberdeen to replace and it will be interesting to see how Derek McInnes gets on without him.
Killie played host to Hibs and Heckingbottam was looking for a reaction after his first league loss whilst in charge of Hibs last week. However, in true Andrew Dallas style, it was all about him he gave a very soft penalty giving Killie the lead and the only goal in the game after half an hour. One can only assume as the summer holidays approach Dallas will be trying to do the pre-flight checks on the plane and going round Edinburgh in the “silent” disco blowing his whistle with joy.
Dundee won their first game in the last 10 and as a reward for beating Livingston 1-0 Dundee manager Jim McIntyre was dismissed and Dundee will again be looking for another manager hoping he will secure promotion out of the championship at the first time of asking. Livingston who are safe will be very happy for their first season back in the top flight, I would suspect that they will be relegation favourites next time around. St Johnstone beat Motherwell 2-0 in the other dead rubber match.
St Mirren host Hamilton tonight (Monday 13th) and a win for the Accies would mean a 6th consecutive season in the Premiership, an amazing feat for such a small club. St Mirren will need 2 wins to guarantee safety although could scrape out by the skin of their teeth if results are kind to them in next weeks fixtures and they draw. It looks likely that St Mirren will be playing in the relegation playoffs.
The playoffs were action packed as usual and starting from the very bottom Berwick Rangers were away to Cove Rangers to try and survive in the Professional leagues. Cove ran out four nil winners meaning that Berwick will go from being the only English team to play in the Scottish Senior leagues to being the only English side to play in the Scottish Lowland leagues. The second leg of that fixture is the 18th May and should be a box office affair if last year’s game against Cowdenbeath is anything to go by. Both clubs were fined and there was a mass brawl between to two clubs management teams before The Blue Brazil won ensuring they stayed in the now SPFL after 113 years of league status.
Moving into the league 1 playoffs both Annan and Clyde made good their first leg wins and finished the job off. Edinburgh City will be disappointed after a great start to the campaign they have really tailed off but Clyde will be delighted to make the final against Annan. Stenny losing in the playoffs will mean that there are 2 new teams promoted from League 2 into the league above. Annan will host the first leg on Tuesday before the final match on Saturday.
In the championship, playoffs Allan "Magic" Johnston got the bounce he was so desperate for as his Queen of the South side scored five first-half goals including a Stephen Dobbie hat-trick which broke the Queens all-time record goalscoring record, a slightly odd achievement for a team embroiled in a relegation playoff. Raith Rovers Drew with Forfar meaning their first leg lead was enough to hold onto seeing them into the play off final, this first leg is in Kirkcaldy and the second away in Dumfries.
Finally, the Premiership playoffs were a far less exciting affair compared to the first leg in Ayr. Inverness recording their incredible 15th league draw of the season and teeing up a doubleheader against Dundee United – the side Inverness eased passed to get to the Scottish Cup semi-finals.