Top three win and bottom three lose as Premiership order holds
Celtic, Rangers and Hearts all won on MatchDay 10. The bottom three all lost, and the mid-table pack tightened.
By Harvey Watkins,
The tenth round of the Scottish Premiership, played on 24 and 25 October, left both ends of the table as they were. Celtic, Rangers and Hearts all won. Hibernian, Kilmarnock and Motherwell all lost. The gaps at the top and the bottom were the same afterwards as they had been before a ball was kicked. The movement came in the middle.
The leading three kept pace
Celtic stayed four points clear on 27 after a 2-1 win over Hibernian at Easter Road. All three goals came inside the first 43 minutes. Owen Elding, Jason Kerr and Camilo Durán were on the scoresheet, and the second half produced nothing further. That made it three straight wins for the leaders, whose only defeat in their last five sits in the middle of that run.
Rangers answered with the most emphatic result of the round, a 4-0 win over St. Johnstone. Kevin Kelsy scored twice, and Ryan Naderi and Tochi Chukwuani added the others. Rangers are unbeaten in five and sit on 23 points.
Hearts held third on 19 with a 2-0 win at Motherwell. Cláudio Braga scored after 29 minutes and Calvin Miller added the second four minutes from time. Hearts' recent form reads win, loss, win, draw, loss, so this was a useful result for a side that has not strung victories together lately. It keeps them four points clear of fourth.
Six clubs within four points
That fourth place now belongs to Dundee United. They beat Aberdeen 3-2 in a five-goal match at Tannadice, where three goals arrived inside the first 27 minutes. The win took United to 15 points and above Dundee, and stretched their unbeaten run to five. Aberdeen dropped to ninth on 11.
Dundee were overtaken because they lost too. St. Mirren beat Dundee FC 2-1, and the significance for the home side was considerable. They had lost their previous four, and three points lifted them into sixth on 13. Dundee, on 14, have gone two without a win.
Falkirk made it two wins in a row with a 3-0 win over Kilmarnock. Cathal McCarthy and Jacob Murrell had them two up before half-time, and George Stanger added the third. Falkirk are level with St Johnstone on 12, one point off sixth.
Only four points now separate fourth from ninth. With that many clubs that close, a single round can reorder the whole section, and this one largely did.
No relief at the bottom
Motherwell have now lost five in a row and sit tenth on 8 points. Kilmarnock are level with them in eleventh after conceding three at Falkirk. Hibernian remain bottom on 7. They have lost three straight and have not won in five, although Saturday's defeat to the leaders was by a single goal.
Ten matches is not a long sample, and Aberdeen in ninth are only four points above Hibernian. But a round in which all three of the bottom sides lost did nothing to loosen the grouping that has formed down there.