Who is the Fairest Derby of Them All?

The football derby (pronounced “darby” by those crazy Brits) is alternatively a source of great pride or great shame, depending on the tendencies of your club in said matches. However, regardless of which one of those particular emotions your team evokes, the derby is almost always a source of anger, confrontation, and shenanigans. After all, what is more fun than verbally abusing and physically beating the supporters of your rival club? With those thoughts in mind, an industrious South African sports reporter has delineated the Top 50 “World’s Greatest Soccer Derbies” and the results are…interesting. There isn’t enough time (or willpower) to dissect the entire list, but let’s identify some of the more egregious decisions, shall we?

1. The first EPL derby mentioned is…Liverpool v. Manchester United? Umm, that’s not an actual derby. The argument that “silverware is at stake” when these 2 clubs meet is also not entirely accurate, as Liverpool have not won the League in almost 2 decades and the last time they finished as high as 2nd was in 2001-2002 (sorry boys!)

2. The only other EPL derby listed is Arsenal-Tottenham (an actual derby! Yay!), which comes in at #42 on the list. This is behind such notable derbies as Rapid Wien v. Austria Wien, Raja Casablanca v. Wydad Casablanca, ALK Sotckholm v. Djurgardens, Kaizer Chiefs v. Orlando Pirates, Pirouzi v. Esteghlal, and Al Ahly v. Zamalek. Umm, who with the what, now?

3. The vaunted(?) Marseille v. Paris Saint-Germain derby comes in at #11. Again, not an actual derby, and the explanation makes almost no mention of PSG other than to note that they were formed in 1970 (which is not entirely accurate, since “Stade Saint-Germain” first played as a club in 1904).

4. Many of the derbies (real or otherwise) mentioned on the list are simply put there due to their average attendance. Apparently, Mohun Bagan v. East Bengal draws a crowd of 120,000 to Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta, India, while Pirouzi v. Esteghlal play in Tehran, Iran in front of 90,000.

5. No mention of MLS’ “Superclasico” of Chivas USA v. LA Galaxy? (alright, that one’s forgiveable)

I found some of the derbies interesting, and it was nice to get a little background on clubs playing footy where 99% of us will never see a league match (in person or on TV), but the list overall seemed a little haphazard. Are we discussing interesting matchups or actual derbies in the accepted sense of the word? Are we trying to highlight one important match from every country (within reason), or are we haphazardly selecting whatever strikes our fancy?

Anyway, some suggestions for derbies (actual ones) that should have been highlighted:

1. Lyon v. Saint-Etienne - Separated by only 30 miles, this is a true derby and features the top 2 clubs, historically, in Ligue 1. Lyon has won 7 titles (all in a row), while Saint-Etienne has won 10 (mostly in the 1960s-1970s, and with a stint in Ligue 2 for brief periods in the 1980s and 1990s)

2. Liverpool v. Everton - The blue and red Scouse stare at each other across the park for the entire season, and twice a year (at least) they come together in nightmarish fashion. The only benefit of this match is that since both clubs are still in town, their players rarely have their homes robbed

3. Hearts v. Hibernian - The Edinburgh derby has all of the Old Firm derby panache with relatively little of the religious angst of Celtic v. Rangers.

4. Juventus v. Torino - This is class warfare, plain and simple. You could spend a month in certain parts of Torino and never know that a team besides Juventus played there. But stroll down the side-paths and less-travelled roads in the city and it is the smaller club that is preferred.

What do you all think of the original list? What about my suggestions? Any suggestions of your own?

Written by Darkvader on November 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on The NY Kid and derbies and moments in rivalry.

The Gaming Of Your Realities #

The Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB) reluctantly allows twenty match referees to be on their roster, after two referees appealed against their careers being curtailed prior to the start of the season.

To date, only 18 of these officials have been selected due to Clattenburg’s financial affairs and Uriah Rennie’s skin colour.
In Serie A, 31 referees have been used in the current season, with no one referee having officiated at more than six matches.
Following this next weekend, Howard Webb will have had 17 appointments (including 4th Official slots) in 13 rounds of Premiership games, and twelve of these events have been the high profile live Sky/Setanta events.
For each of the last two seasons, Mr Webb has finished in penultimate position in our Bum Ref Index, and he was sent home early from Euro 2008 for enforcing an unenforceable rule of the game.

With Premiership managers threatening to go on strike over the dreadful standard of the refereeing in the league, it is worth reflecting on why such a small, and largely inept, group are allowed to officiate in the world’s biggest league.
When some games are grossing £1 billion pre-match betting liquidity in Asia, having such a structure with so few refs and a high bias in who gets selected for what, is a template seemingly established to be problematical in the integrity department.
Do the mathematics…

The televised matches are the biggest turnover events and, when one assesses the PGMOB selection of referees for these matches, the situation becomes even more perilous.
Only 12 referees ################################################ have been given these appointments, and even within this inner group of the Select Group, there is a hierarchy.
So, Howard Webb has refereed eight of the 47 live events to date, and Mike Dean, who was banned just a couple of years ago for his links to online gambling site, Arbitros Racing, has been given 7 matches.
Riley with 6, Bennett and Wiley with 5 games apiece, Mickey Mouse Atkinson 4 and Dowd 3, suddenly, we are able to see that out of these 47 high turnover live matches, just 7 officials have controlled 38 of these events.
Over 80% of the biggest betting matches are officiated by just 7 officials.

We are not saying in this place that any of these officials are corrupt, although we outline a rather disturbing linkage between one official and one manager below, but why such a structure?

If Premiership managers are threatening to down tools, professional traders are regarding the selection of the particular match officials as of paramount importance in analysing a particular market and when fans are actually discussing the potentially illegal machinations that are determining the outcomes of the matches that they are paying their hard-earned cash to witness, this infrastructure has become invalid.

If I represented a corrupt body that wished to contort hyperrealities in the English Premiership for proprietary gain, I would be desirous of as small a grouping of senior match officials as possible.
After all, how would I go about gaming a pool of 100 officials?

Other territories are significantly more open about the Reality of corruption.
Dynamo Kyiv versus Shakhtar Donetsk games use officials from a different country, La Gazzetta dello Sport analyses referee selections at headline level, etc etc.
Even in Scotland, with its two-tiered bias to Rangers over Celtic, and bias to the Auld Firm over everybody else, there is a momentum to be facing up to the impact of these machinations.
Although it should be added, there appears to be a risk of a distortion of Reality here.
Graham Roberts has just published a book claiming bias in favour of the Auld Firm but he neatly avoids any differentiation between the two Glasgow giants with, if anything, a suggestion that Celtic receive a rub of the green more than ‘Gers.
Yeah right…
In a similar manner that calciopoli targeted Juventus, leading to the loss of players, Champions League income and demotion, while equally guilty Milan laughed all the way to the bank despite being more culpable in the match machination department, there is a concern that any evaluation of the bias north of the border will be similarly non-discriminating or selective.
Roberts’ suggestion of using foreign referees (not English, please) for the major Rangers v Celtic events surely makes sense though.

There are a couple of other points that need to be made regarding the selection of referees in the English Premiership.
Firstly, there are frequent changes of match official pre-match.
Over the last two seasons and to date for 2008/09, there have been 30 changes of referee in the Premiership.
In 15 years of data for Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga combined, there have been less than a handful of such alterations.
These changes distort markets and we have evidence that the adjustment process is being gamed by those in possession of the information early. This is both insider trading and market manipulation.
In one weekend, earlier this season, there were 14 changes in the Select Group selections (refs, linesmen, 4th officials) prior to the off.
14??!!
I know its grim living in this island but is there some epidemic that we should be aware of here?

Secondly, why aren’t the marks that managers give to officials made public?
Then referees and other officials might be selected meritocratically.
This is such an obvious barrier against corruption that it is ludicrous that the PGMOB doesn’t implement it.
It has reached the stage where the managers have had enough. Apart from the threatened strike action, Roy Keane gave Mickey Mouse a 10/10 after three incorrect goals were given to Chelsea in a recent ‘game’.
The outcome? A disrepute charge!
Hackett doesn’t do Humour.

And, so to the final part of our post, where we demonstrate a rather disturbing pattern between one match referee and one Premiership manager.
We will call them Mr X and Mr Y.

Listed below are the most recent events where Mr X and Mr Y have been in cahoots, or not…
You decide…

###############################################################################
##########################################################################
##############################################################################
###############################################
################################################################################
#########################################################################
###################################################################
############################################################################
########################################################################
######################################################################
#############################################################################
######################################################################
##################################################################
##################################################################
#########################################################################
#######################################################################
#######################################################################
####################################################################

A few final points.
Why are these patterns not spotted within the PGMOB?
Why has Mr X been given 8 of Mr Y’s games in one and a third seasons?
The average should be 2 games per season, even in a tilted environment like the Premiership.

As Alex Ferguson said about the retirement of Graham Poll: “He’d better get out before he stopped smiling.”

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Written by Football Is Fixed on November 14th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.

Shagging Sheep #

Roy Keane has accused Sky Sports of brainwashing the public.

“I was asked to do the Celtic versus Manchester United game but I’ve done it once for Sky and never again,” Keane said. “I’d rather go to the dentist. You’re sitting there with people like Richard Keys and they’re trying to sell something that’s not there.”

Ah, that would be the ScudamoreWorld/Murdochracy fake reality then…

English Premiership football exists in a twilight zone representing the dictatorship of the markets.
Selected agents, owners, bookmakers, managers, players, officials, administrators, the media and the underworld (those not already covered in this listing) attend certain ####################################################### in order to develop their links and strategies for match fixing.

Knowledge and information are everything in corrupted football betting markets, and these foundations may be sub-divided into the internal and the external.
Inside information is allegedly illegal in financial markets, although prosecutions are as rare as a dose of honesty from Andy Gray.
In football, inside information is gold-dust.
If you psychopathically control the outcome of just one match, you are able to set yourself up for life, assuming one is not a greedy person, by trading the scam in Asia and/or on the private markets.

Our knowledge and information are far more revealing.
For although we receive copious amounts of inside info from our web of contacts in the markets and the game, it is our analytical databases that reveal far more knowledge about the massive corruptions that are taking place behind closed doors.

We choose only to expose the tip of the iceberg of our full knowledge of the ################################################################## corruption in the English game.
If we were to inform you of the full extent of what is taking place in the name of sport, you would be totally gobsmacked.

In this post, we visit and assess a whole range of the corruptions which define the Premier League and football in general.
This journey will take us to some interesting locations - Asian bookmakers, corrupt goalkeepers, the systemic rigging of Premiership matches, criminalised officials, linkages between owners and the underground betting markets, the arena of agreed draws, insider trading, the global financial plight and its impact on the betting markets and the strategies of the insider operators who game these markets.

Unfortunately, the remainder of this post and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.
Our roster is now full for Football Is Fixed.
But, please enjoy the free snippets that we are posting on this site.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Written by Football Is Fixed on November 8th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.

Saturday Open Thread

I think everyone else has a severe case of, well, something bad. Let’s get Saturday started. Cisse has already put Sunderland up. Arsenal surprised Manchester United. What else is going on? That’s for you to fill in. Interesting games after the break.

Wigan and Stoke drew at nil.
Arsenal defeated United on two Nasri goals. Hope SAF had his tin hat on.

EPL (10.00 EST)
Hull-Bolton
Sunderland-Portsmouth
West Ham-Everton
Liverpool-West Brom (12.30 EST)

Championship (10.00 EST)
Norwich-PNE
Coventry-Crystal Palace
Wolves-Burnley

SPL (10.00 EST)
Dundee United-Aberdeen (already 2-0, ugh)
Celtic-Motherwell
Hamilton-Falkirk
Hibs-ICT
St Mirren-Hearts

Also, lots of FA Cup first round action, which I’ll not spoil because of the tape delays that FSC are showing.

Written by Darkvader on November 8th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Open Thread and ü75.

AAAAAGHOpen Thread

Careful, lads. Gerrard’s fired up today, practically falling all over himself in desperation to get in on the action.

Honestly though, do Celtic have a chance in hell? Do either of these games even matter?

Group E
–
AaB v Villarreal
Celtic v Man Utd

Group F
–
Fiorentina v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Steaua Bucuresti

Group G
–
Arsenal v Fenerbahce
Dynamo Kiev v FC Porto

Group H
–
BATE v Zenit St Petersburg
Real Madrid v Juventus

Lineups:

Celtic v. Man United
Celtic: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson, Hartley, Scott Brown, Robson, Maloney, McDonald, Sheridan.
Subs: Mark Brown, Naylor, Donati, Hutchinson, Nakamura, O’Dea, Caddis.

Man Utd: Foster, Rafael Da Silva, Ferdinand, Vidic, O’Shea, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick, Nani, Tevez, Giggs.
Subs: Kuszczak, Evra, Anderson, Berbatov, Rooney, Park, Evans.

Arsenal v. Fenerbahce
Arsenal: Fabianski, Toure, Djourou, Silvestre, Clichy, Ramsey, Fabregas, Denilson, Nasri, Bendtner, Van Persie.
Subs: Mannone, Diaby, Sagna, Vela, Song Billong, Wilshere, Gibbs.

Fenerbahce: Demirel, Gonul, Edu Dracena, Lugano, Roberto Carlos, Maldonado, Sahin, Boral, Kazim-Richards, Senturk, Guiza.
Subs: Babacan, Wederson, Yilmaz, Josico, Bilgin, Cakmak, Deivid.

Written by Darkvader on November 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Arsenal and CL Open Thread and Champions League and Lingering Bursitis and manchester united.

Scotland Update

Apparently, I find it too difficult to do this on a weekly basis. So, in order not to cheat those who actually click the link for a Scotland post, I’ll expand the one I do. SPL, SFL, Highland League, and whatever else I can fit in after the break.

As per usual in the SPL, it was a six game slate this weekend.

Rangers 5-0 Inverness CT
Rangers won the fast start award, knocking in five first half goals against Inverness Caley Thistle. The home fans were undoubtedly thrilled to see a hat trick from Kris Boyd in between the opener from never-to-be-a-Scot-international Nacho Novo and the final goal from Kenny Miller. For the American readers, Beasley came in on 74 minutes, while Edu did not leave the subs’ bench.

Aberdeen 1-0 Kilmarnock
Sone Aluko fired home for the Dons to earn the team’s first home win in six tries this season. Aberdeen had a flurry of chances around the half-hour mark, but wouldn’t find the net until shortly after half-time. Aluko peeled in from the left and blasted a shot from a rather tight angle in the 50th minute. Killie had some late chances after Aberdeen failed to expand their lead, but (thankfully) Aberdeen held on with a nervous win.

Motherwell 2-0 Hamilton Academical
Chris Porter scored once in each half for the home side as Hamilton fell further behind at the foot of the table. Porter’s first half goal was a redirect of a Bob Malcolm free kick. His second came at the expense of the offside rule, apparently. Still, the goal counted, and Hamilton had no reply. On the back of Porter’s brace, Motherwell move up to third in the table. Hamilton have lost six straight and eight out of nine.

Falkirk 0-0 Dundee United
St Mirren 0-0 Hibernian
*yawn* What is this, Ligue 1 from two seasons back? Score some goals, you tossers. That’s right, on Saturday 10 teams played, and eight goals were scored by three teams. I’m not even going to attempt to find something to talk about from these matches.

Hearts 0-2 Celtic
Hey, an away team scored goals! On Sunday, Celtic took over Tynecastle. In a surprise to none, Celtic had already put the game out of reach on twenty minutes, when Gary Caldwell scored Celtic’s second. Hearts went a man down early in the second, but acquitted themselves well in not collapsing completely. In fact, they had some attempts on goal, but Boruc was always equal to the task.

Celtic top the SPL table on 28 points from 11 games. Rangers are on 25 points, but have a game in hand and, thanks to those five goals, are even on GD with Celtic. Motherwell lead a pack of six who are on between 14 and 16 points, while Hamilton are starting to drift off the back.

In other SPL news, UEFA announced that next season, should Rangers blow it again in CL qualifying, they will go directly into the Europa League instead of being dumped out of Europe entirely. (Yes, that means Rangers are finishing second. Got a problem with that?)

St Johnstone lead the First Division by two points over Queen of the South. The Johnnies picked up first place by defeating Dunfermline over the weekend, while QotS lost to Partick Thistle. Morton are propping up the table, two points behind Clyde.

Raith currently top the Second Division on goal difference over Brechin City. Brechin lost first place on Saturday after a humiliating 5-1 loss to fifth-place Peterhead. Ratih took over the top spot after a twelve minute flurry of three second-half goals to defeat Alloa. Arbroath sit at the bottom with six points from twelve game, three points below Straraer.

Stenhousemuir maintained their Third Division lead over Dumbarton with 3-0 away win over fifth-placed Montrose. Dumbarton kept pace on points, though, by defeating struggling Berwick Rangers 5-2. Berwick are in ninth place, right above Elgin City, but still behind the fading newbies Annan Athletic

In the Highland League, Inverurie Locos are unbeaten in seven to start the season and beat Rothes on Saturday 5-2. Cove Rangers and Deveronvale are also off to hot starts this season with both teams sitting just two points back of the league leaders. Rothes are one of the two bottom teams, joined by the always-woeful Fort William FC on one point.

Finally, in the second round of the Scottish Cup, Spartans of Edinburgh were able to extract some revenge on Annan Athletic, who beat them out for the offseason’s SFL spot, by winning 2-1 on the road. Of course, it’s small consolation when the team that finished five spots below you in competition last season gets picked to jump ahead of you in league status, but they will take what they can get.

Written by Darkvader on November 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Highland League and SFL and SPL and Scotland and ü75.

Shun-Celtic Cashamora

Celtic Midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura is set to quit Scotland FOR JAPAN at just 30 years old. Join me to speculate why, after the jump.

Nakamura currently has a ankle injury that is strapped before every game and the Japanese middy fears that his career could end short if he continues to play in the wet conditions that Scotland offers him weekly. Of course we all know that it doesn’t rain in Japan.

But it will this week! Why would he be playing injured? Surely Celtic would rather have a fit Shunsuke, no? Even with the expense of a lay-off for treatment?

So is the weather the real reason or does Shunsuke want out Parkhead? Could the team in his desired destination be offering him lots of money? Nothing screams ambition like a move to the Yokohama Morino’s right?

“I want to play football for a long time but at the moment my right ankle is giving me problems. I have to get it heavily strapped before every game I play in. I want to be the best I can be and I’m not able to do that right now. It is frustrating.”

- Nakamura yesterday.

Oh, so he wants to be the best he can be! Then the J-League is the right place. After all, Gary Lineker thought so didn’t he? When Nagoya Grampus Eight offered him a handsome salary and gave Tottenham 5 million smackers back in 1991. Nothing like a final pay day to bring out the bullshit, regardless of the language it’s spoken in.

-Bigus.

Written by Darkvader on October 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Bigus Dickus and Celtic and Shunsake Nakimura and cashing in.

Monday Backpasses: Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh

When did British fans get so uptight? I can only imagine how much they would cry as away fans at a KU football game.
Wayne Rooney makes Everton fans cry by kissing his Manchester United badge [Soccernet]
Celtic fans continue to get wound up by a “Famine Song” [BBC]

Anyway, other stuff below.

Ljungberg to Seattle. Book it. Done [Soccernet]
Sucks to be a female Colombian U-17 selection [Oregon Live]

MLS three-fer:
ESPN hates MLS [Soccer America]
Greg Lalas writes as Beckham’s jilted bride. “No, it’s okay. He’s an ass. I hope he goes. Good Riddance. Don’t show your face around here anymore! *breaks into sobs*” [SI]
Greg Lalas on MLS positions within the EPL (SI,B!) [Goal.com]

And, finally:
If you haven’t seen it, go check out Kieran Richardson’s goal against Newcastle. Then come back and let us know what expletives flew out of your mouth when you watched it [101 Great Goals]

Written by Darkvader on October 27th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Backpasses and ü75.

FIFPro World XI and FIFPro Player of the Year and BALLON D’OR

55 players shortlisted for FIFPro World XI Player Awards

FIFPro (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballers Professionnels), the worldwide representative organisation for all professional footballers, today announced the 55 players shortlisted for the 4th FIFPro World XI Player Awards.

In August and September this year the 45,000 professional footballers belonging to the 42 professional organisations across the world that form FIFPro received voting forms in a secret ballot to nominate their peers for inclusion in their “World XI” - choosing the four defenders, three midfielders, three forwards and goalkeeper they most admire.

It is striking that, out of the 55 nominees, the majority were playing in England and Spain last season. The English Premiership attracted the most nominees with 21, followed by the Spanish Primera Division with 18. Italy’s Serie A attracted 8 nominees, the Bundesliga in Germany 4, the Premier League in Russia 2, and the Premier League in Scotland and Portugal provided 1 each.

Barcelona heads the list for the most nominations with 9. Chelsea follows with 8, Manchester United have 7, Real Madrid 6, AC Milan 5, Bayern Munich 4, Arsenal 3, Liverpool and Inter 2 and there is 1 each from Juventus, Internazionale, Sevilla, Valencia, Villareal, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympique Lyon, Celtic, FC Porto, CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg.

11 PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYERS UP FOR BALLON D’OR
The Premier League has 11 players short-listed for the Ballon d’Or, more than any other league.

The Premier League leads the way in terms of player representation at this years Ballon d’Or with 11 players in the mix. Spain’s La Liga comes a close second with 10 players selected from the condensed list of 30 by France Football Magazine.

Disappointingly, just three England Internationals are selected - Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard - for the Golden Ball Award.

Manchester United and Portugal star Ronaldo is the favourite to win the award which will be announced on the 2nd December 2008.Whilst England have the three nominee’s, Champions of Europe Spain have seven players in the list - Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, David Villa, Sergio Ramos, Marcos Senna, Iker Casillas and Xavi.

The Serie A players has three players nominated - Kaka, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gianluigi Buffon.

List of 30 Nominees:

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Togo.
Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid), Argentine.
Andreï Archavine (Zénith Saint-Pétersbourg), Russia.
Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Germany.
Karim Benzema (Lyon), France.
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus Turin), Italy.
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Spain.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Portugal.
Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Ivory Coast.
Samuel Eto’o (FC Barcelone), Cameroon.
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Spain.
Fernando Torres (Liverpool FC), Spain.
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC), England.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan), Sweden.
Kaka (Milan AC), Brazil.
Frank Lampard (Chelsea), England.
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelone), Argentina.
Pepe (Real Madrid), Portugal.
Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich), France.
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), England.
Marcos Senna (Villarreal), Spain.
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Spain.
Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Italy.
Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Netherlands.
Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburg SV puis Real Madrid), Netherlands.
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Netherlands.
Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Serbia.
David Villa (Valence CF), Spain.
Xavi (FC Barcelone), Spain.
Youri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscou), Russia.

Written by Jackson Ng Ghim Pheng True Blue Chelsea Fan on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.

Scotland Round Up

Thanks to a 1-0 away win, this column comes back. Inside, a look at the weekend that was in Scotland.

The weekend started out on Saturday with a 12.30 kickoff in Inverness. Just over 7000 fans showed up to see Caley Thistle host Celtic. Boruc was the early hero for Celtic, as his shot stopping kept the hosts without a goal in a frenetic, home-dominated, first half. Things quickly changed after the break. In the 48th minute, Lee Naylor crossed the ball in, and Scott Brown put it away. Less than 20 minutes later, Celtic struck again as Glenn Loovens redirected a Barry Robson cross. Caley Thistle replied quickly, but were unable to overcome the two goal deficit.
Inverness Caley Thistle 1-2 Celtic

The day’s 3 o’clock kickoffs had no real top of the table implications, but plenty of bottom feeders looking to put some distance between themselves and relegation.

Hamilton hosted St Mirren, and for all the talk of their status as worst team in the league, the Buddies acquitted themselves well, scoring three times. Though not all for the same team. St Mirren took the lead in the 17th minute through Franco Miranda whose blistering shot came from outside the 18. Hamilton levelled 10 minutes later, when Jack Ross knocked a cross into his own net. St Mirren retook the lead before halftime, when Billy Mehmet headed home. The second half produced no more goals.
Hamilton Academical 1-2 St Mirren

Aberdeen took to the road at Falkirk and, as should be no surprise, took home all three points. Coming into the match, Aberdeen had two things going for them. First, they had taken wins in two of three previous away matches this season. Second, they have not lost to Falkirk in league in a dog’s age. Still, it took Lee Miller heading in from Andrew Considine’s cross on Aberdeen’s only real chance to secure the win. The goal came in the 48th minute.
Falkirk 0-1 Aberdeen

The last of the three mid-afternoon kick offs seemed to be heading for a nil draw until Craig Bryson scored late into injury time. Motherwell had looked a good bet to hold on for a point despite being a man down for 25 minutes until Bryson slotted home a deflected shot from Jamie Hamill.
Kilmarnock 1-0 Motherwell

Sunday’s game was an Edinburgh derby, as Hibs hosted Hearts. Hibernian started the game off brightest, and only needed 90 seconds to go in front. Steven Fletcher was the early goal scorer. Hearts replied five minuted before the break when Bruno Aguiar beat both the wall and the keeper. This was a spirited contest, with five yellow cards handed out, though no more goals were to come.
Hibernian 1-1 Hearts

There was one more match to be played, but Rangers-Dundee United was postponed on the news of the death of Eddie Thompson, United’s chairman. The game has been rescheduled for November 4. United’s next home match will be a tribute to Thompson. All seats for the match against St Mirren will be £5.

As far as the table goes, Celtic take advantage of Rangers’ weekend off to build a three point lead at the top. Kilmarnock consolidate their third position, and Falkirk fall to the bottom, two points adrift of Hamilton. As for Aberdeen, 10th and climbing!

Written by Darkvader on October 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on SPL and Scotland and ü75.