Week 9 results:
Celtic 4 – 2 Hibernian
Hearts 2 – 1 Aberdeen
Livingston 4 – 0 Dundee
Motherwell 0 – 1 St Johnstone
St Mirren 1 – 2 Kilmarnock
Hamilton 1 – 4 Rangers
Hearts regain winning thread
Thank goodness we were back to club action this week as I think the majority of Scots could do without the international breaks at the moment. Hearts bounced back in style to beat Aberdeen at Tynecastle. After a poor result before the break, away at Ibrox it was interesting to see how Hearts would respond and along with the weekend victory they have gone on to win away at Dundee in style to heap more misery on that side, more on that later. It was imperative Hearts started winning again as soon as possible as the result at Ibrox before the break could have knocked their momentum but Craig Levein should be getting so much credit for getting his side to bounce back in such style. Two massive results in the space of 4 days will come as a timely boost for Hearts before 2 huge games against Celtic in the league cup semi final on Sunday and an away league fixture the following weekend. The 2 league cup semi’s look set to be absolute crackers in waiting and I don’t think anyone would put it past Hearts to keep their momentum going and putting Celtic out this weekend. Hearts all of a sudden seem to have options and a depth to the squad previously missing. Again it remains to be seen whether Hearts can continue to deliver consistently over the period of a season but they are showing all the right signs at this moment in time.
Huge job for McIntyre at Dens
Jim McIntyre has been the man faced with the mammoth task of saving Dundee’s season. I don’t think many will envy the size of the job facing him. The least the Dundee fans would have expected since McCann was sacked last week would have been a sign of a response. There have been absolutely none and if possible they seem to have regressed even more. 4-0 on Saturday away at Livi probably less of a surprise than the 3-0 home reverse to Hearts, I suppose that speaks volumes of how far Livingston have come and also with Livingston’s questionable home surface, it wasn’t a huge surprise to see a drubbing but what will worry McIntyre more is the lifeless display at their home ground against a good Hearts team but I think even a poor Hearts team would have still run out ready winners, a terrible penalty miss from Calvin Miller summing up how things are at the moment for Dundee. I don’t see where Dundee go from here and that is worrying considering we aren’t even out of October yet. The only solace for Dundee is that teams like, St Mirren, Motherwell and Hamilton haven’t been a whole lot better and if they can turn their form around soon they won’t have much catching up to do. There does seem to be a massive gulf between the bottom 4 teams and the rest in terms of quality. Motherwell probably a surprise considering their cup exploits last season, I am confident they will steer clear of trouble in the near future. If I had to call it now, I see it as a three way shootout between Dundee, Hamilton and St Mirren and the last named I think will have enough quality to escape a scrap.
Shaky Rangers get the job done eventually
Rangers finally got their first league away win of the season. The result ended up empathic which looked unlikely with 10 minutes to go. Two clumsy mistakes by defender Penny turned the game on it’s head and spared Rangers blushes against a relatively poor Hamilton side. Boyd’s equaliser for Hamilton was out of the top drawer and will be up there for goal of the season. Steven Gerrard will be worried by his players performance levels however, they were very sluggish and never looked like winning the game even when 1-0 up. A similar situation arose at the Tony Macaroni arena at the end of last month before a big Europa League game and I wonder if the players had one eye on the big European fixture more so than the run of the mill away league game at less glamorous Livingston and Hamilton. That may not be the case and could be more to do with the plastic pitches both games took place on but I tend to think it is more to do with the players not giving the games their whole focus.
Celtic moving in right direction seemingly
Celtic’s last two league games have seen 10 goals for and 2 against, a stark contrast to their early season form. Things are looking a lot better for the Parkhead side and other teams in the league will have to be wary. A big hurdle awaits Celtic this week with an enormous task away to Leipzig on Thursday followed by a massive cup semi final against a flying Hearts team. I have a feeling this week could actually shape how this season turns out. A respectable result in Germany and a cup semi final, Celtic will have their swagger and confidence back but a humbling in Germany and knocked out the semi final could really knock the wheels off the season completely and take a huge effort from the manager to lift his players for the rest of the campaign even as early as November.
Best of luck to Scottish sides in Europe this week
Just a quick note to wish the Scottish sides the best of luck for their European endeavours this week, positive results at that level can only help the game in Scotland as a whole going forward!
Scottish Football Weekly Round Up 
Are you a Jambo yourself? Good read once again, mon the hoops
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