Football: Scottish Round-Up: Wright lightens the mood at Parkhead

IAN WRIGHT'S stand-up routine might be hard to match, but Celtic's new hero proved on Saturday that his stand-in routine is more than up to scratch too.

The former Arsenal and England striker found it just as easy to cut Kilmarnock down to size at Parkhead as he had in trimming the egos of a few people, notably his arch-critic David Mellor ("a failed politician"), just 48 hours earlier in the same stadium at his press conference which had hacks rolling in the aisles.

However, Wright provided the debut goal he and the 58,720 crowd craved when he hit the fourth in the 5-1 Premier League success over 10-man Kilmarnock. The man who really deserved the attention, Mark Viduka, found his hat- trick almost overlooked in the Wright hype. Craig Burley claimed the other home goal.

Rangers maintained their leadership of the League by also winning 5-1, away to Aberdeen. The Finn, Jonatan Johansson, hit three goals for the champions.

In last night's match Hibernian climbed to sixth place with a 3-2 win over Dundee United at Easter Road. The Trinidadian, Russell Latapy, was the home side's hero with two goals. United's Scotland striker, Billy Dodds, opened the scoring with an audacious chip but sent a 94th-minute penalty high over the bar.