Game Week 7 – Two steps forward, one step back for Gers. Salvation for McCann?

Game week 7 results:

Celtic 1 – 0 Aberdeen

Hamilton 0 – 2 Dundee

Hearts 2 -1 St Johnstone

Kilmarnock 3 – 1 Motherwell

St Mirren 0 – 1 Hibs

Livingston 1 – 0 Rangers

Two steps forward, one step back for Gers

Livingston continued their extremely impressive start to the season by taking the scalp of Rangers at the Tony Macaroni Arena. Dolly Menga’s strike proving enough to take 3 points and provide a major setback to the Ibrox side. Rangers since Gerrard’s arrival have been brilliant in spells, mainly in European competition. The league form especially the away form must be a major concern. This performance was the worst performance of Gerrard’s reign so far and they must turn it round quickly starting tomorrow at home to Rapid Vienna in the Europa League. Rangers didn’t look interested on Sunday and were far to predictable and not causing Livingston many moments worry. Even in other away games this season there have been positives for Rangers, away to Aberdeen they were robbed after a poor refereeing decision and succumbed late to an injury time equaliser. This has to be a wake up call for Rangers and they have to get their act together quickly as  they should be looking to capitalise on their big rivals sluggish start to the season as that could turn very quickly. Livingston have taken to life in the Premiership like a duck to water and in this type of form they are going to be challenging well into the top 6. On the back of two successive promotions where not many could work out the Livingston style of play, this looks as though it’s going to continue. 

Salvation for McCann

A timely win for Dundee and Neil McCann at New Douglas Park on Saturday against fellow strugglers Hamilton. This came just in time for the manager who has looked on the brink for much of the season. Now it is all about kicking on for Dundee and trying to get up the table to safety. I’ll hold back judgement just now on this as I’m not convinced they are capable of putting a run of results together and if I had to put my life on it I would be predicting we will be talking about them being back to square one after next weekend against Steve Clarke’s Kilmarnock. Same old story for Hamilton, inconsistency is eventually going to haunt them if they keep this up. They have brilliantly managed to stay up the past few seasons but if they continue losing big games against fellow relegation candidates it will soon prove to be one season to far. They need a response quickly and things do not get easier this weekend away to Hibs but they have been there before when under pressure and delivered. 

Hearts go marching on

Everyone is just waiting on the Hearts bandwagon coming to a halt but it is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. After hitting a stumbling block the previous weekend against a stubborn Livi, they bounced back and ground out a great win against St Johnstone. Positive signs for the Jambo as it is not all about winning in style and are now showing they are capable of grinding out results to get the points. A big test this weekend awaits for Hearts going to Ibrox where I am expecting a huge response from Rangers after the Livingston game even accounting for European exploits on Thursday.

Celtic back to winning ways

A first win in 3 league games is not something anyone would associate with Celtic in recent seasons but this was exactly this for the Parkhead side. Not a great performance by any matter of means from Celtic but the most important thing was the result. Again it will remain to be seen whether this Celtic side can deliver consistently especially away from home where they sit second bottom in the away league table and especially after an away European game against Leipzig. Aberdeen had their chances and will still be a real test for any side in the league as they try to emulate their performances of previous seasons. 

Dundee United a sorry sight

In the championship, Dundee United finally gave Csaba Lazlo his P45 and it looks to be the right decision. An awful side and to be brutally honest have been awful for a couple of seasons, they need a complete revamp and change of direction or they could be heading down into League 1. 5-1 at home to Ross County would have been unthinkable a few seasons ago but it now seems this type of humiliation is becoming part of the norm at Tannadice.