Football: Celtic's tame defeat at Tannadice

JOHN BARNES suffered his first defeat as Celtic's head coach as Dundee United prevailed 2-1 at Tannadice Park yesterday.

Goals from Craig Easton after 12 minutes and Billy Dodds three minutes before the break left Celtic needing to call on their powers of recovery. The visitors dominated the second half but their only real response was an 82nd-minute volley from Eyal Berkovic.

After their midweek Uefa Cup defeat in Iceland, Kilmarnock suffered more punishment yesterday when they went down 2-0 at St Johnstone, for whom Gary Bollan and Nathan Lowndes scored.

Hibernian missed the chance to move to the top of the Premier League on Saturday when they conceded a late goal in a 1-1 draw at home to their Edinburgh rivals, Hearts. An equaliser from Gary McSwegan cancelled out a first-half penalty from the Trinidadian winger Russell Latapy.