Moravcik turns to thoughts of managing Celtic

Lubomir Moravcik stayed warm alongside Martin O'Neill in the sub-zero temperature that gripped Tannadice on Saturday night. The talismanic playmaker was rested as Celtic romped to a 4-0 victory over Dundee United, but perhaps O'Neill is just keeping the manager's seat warm for him.

The Slovakian international confirmed yesterday that he will hang up his boots at the end of the season and, while Moravcik was grateful to be kept on the bench while Celtic brought down the curtain on 2001, he has set his sights on returning one day to inherit O'Neill's job. "This is a club that lives in my heart and, when I am ready to take on the job, I would love to be manager," Moravcik said.

"I will return to France and get my coaching licence and work to a coaching position. I have learned a lot from playing under Martin O'Neill in the last two seasons and I hope that will help me."

Even with Moravcik kept on ice, Celtic showed no ill-effects as they recorded their 50th win in 59 Premier League games since O'Neill took charge. John Hartson started the scoring with his 12th goal for the club. Stilian Petrov stabbed in Celtic's second before Alan Thompson curled in a second half free-kick and Henrik Larsson steered a shot in off the post – his 19th goal of the season.

A familiar name was also on the scoresheet for Rangers as Michael Mols scored the only goal in the 1-0 home win over St Johnstone which keeps them 10 points adrift of their Old Firm rivals. The Dutchman, who has lost almost two years to a knee injury, started only his second match of the season.

The Rangers manager Alex McLeish refused to let Mols move on loan to Sunderland until he had time to assess his new squad, and kept the club-record £12m signing Tore Andre Flo on the bench as Mols struck in the first minute.

"To score is all I could have asked for," Mols said. "At least I was playing – it's difficult to score if you are in the stand, but my knee is fine now."

McLeish added: "I wanted to look at Michael and I had a word with Flo and he understood the situation."

John O'Neil scored in stoppage time to earn a 1-1 draw for the new Hibernian manager, Franck Sauzée, away to Hearts. Livingston slumped to only their third defeat of the season, an own goal from Oscar Rubio giving Kilmarnock a 1-0 win, while fourth-placed Aberdeen also lost, 1-0 at Dunfermline, Lee Bullen hitting the winner.