Week 8 Results:
Aberdeen 4 – 1 St Mirren
Dundee 1 – 2 Kilmarnock
Hibs 6 – 0 Hamilton
Motherwell 1 – 1 Livingston
Rangers 3 – 1 Hearts
St Johnstone 0 – 6 Celtic
Livi still a tough nut to crack
It may seem strange to lead with a section on Livi given the amount of very strong performances over the weekend but I don’t think Livi are getting the credit they deserve to be perfectly honest. We are now in October and still their only defeat of the season is an opening day defeat away to the champions. On Saturday they went to Motherwell and achieved a draw at a tough place to go, their performance was not as good as they have been but what they lacked in quality they made up for in determination and they have to be admired. Jacobs brilliant free kick a moment to savour on Saturday. Livingston have come off the back of two straight promotions and not many teams have worked out their style and they have taken some big scalps along the way. If they keep this going which I see no reason why they wouldn’t they will become Premiership regulars and will be troubling the top 6 more than the bottom half.
Last years top 4 back to winning ways
The weekends round of games was the 8th of the season and this is the first weekend that all of last years top 4 have won on the one weekend. This is extremely eye opening and shows how much more competitive the league has become this season. It’s hard to choose who was more impressive at the weekend and I think all should be complimented equally. Celtic seemed to get their swagger back when wiping the floor with St Johnstone and their challenge now is building on this and delivering this performance consistently, the international break has come at the wrong time by the looks of it. Rangers were extremely impressive in a first half hammering of league leaders Hearts, Rangers for the first half were imperious and only slight negative was they should have buried Hearts completely in the early stages of the second half but credit to the leaders who dug in and performed bravely in the second half but were simply blown away by the opening stages. Hibs seem to be growing as a side and I don’t think it would be wise to rule them out as potential challengers as they seem be improving week on week. Admittedly it was a poor Hamilton side they blew away but this has been a fixture Hibs previously struggled with and they seem to be beating the “other” sides in the league more consistently. Aberdeen delivered their best performance of the season and inflicted a heavy defeat on St Mirren. I would say Aberdeen are the weakest of last years top 4 and lost a few key players from last season and they could be struggling for top 5 this season due to Hearts impressive start and brilliant Livi showing no signs of stopping.
Special word for National side
Best of luck to Alex McLeish’s men out in Israel tonight, the new UEFA Nations League could present an ample opportunity for Scotland to get back on the real international stage and a win tonight would go a long way towards progression.
Also I would like to hear thoughts and opinions on the Leigh Griffiths saga about pulling out of the national team to focus on his fitness. Do players not value their national side any more or do people think Leigh has just spat the dummy out due to being dropped during the last international week?
Scottish Football Weekly Round Up 