Football: Celtic's win keep rivals waiting

Scottish football

Scottish football

Celtic kept the title celebrations of Rangers on hold with a convincing 3-0 win over Aberdeen yesterday. It merely delays the inevitable, as Rangers are one point away from clinching their ninth successive title, but there was clear determination from the Celtic players to ensure their great rivals would not equal their record without kicking a ball.

Jorge Cadete scored twice, with the third goal coming from Simon Donnelly to produce not just a result but a performance which will lift Celtic's morale for Wednesday's Scottish Cup semi-final replay with Falkirk.

At the bottom of the division the situation is less clear-cut, with Hibernian, Kilmarnock and Motherwell contesting the play-off place. All three clubs collected a point on Saturday, with Kilmarnock and Hibs drawing 1-1 at Rugby Park to remain level on 37 points, three ahead of Motherwell, who drew 1-1 with Dundee United.

That earned United a place in Europe but they will be without Stewart McKimmie for tomorrow's Cup semi-final replay against Kilmarnock after the defender was shown the red card in the second half.

John Robertson burst into tears after equalling Hearts' League goalscoring record with an injury-time equaliser against Dunfermline. The striker, who had a spell at Newcastle, has pulled level, on 206 goals, with Jimmy Wardhaugh.

St Johnstone ended their three-year First Division exile by clinching promotion with a 3-2 win over East Fife although the Perth side, who led 2-0, were brought back to parity by the division's bottom side before claiming the three points.

Paul Sturrock, the St Johnstone manager, said: ''I will finally say we have done it, although I don't want to talk about the game because we were so bad. When I arrived here I said it would take me three years to get things right and now I have signed another three-year deal and that's how long it will take me to achieve what I want in the Premier Division.''

Airdrie remain the favourites for the First Division promotion play-off place despite a 1-1 draw at Morton.