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Slipshod Celtic stumbled in this season’s compelling Scottish Premiership title race with a damaging 2-0 defeat by Dundee United at Tannadice.
The pressure was on Martin O’Neill’s side after leaders Hearts and title-challenging Rangers both won on Saturday, but they meekly failed to meet the challenge. On a poor Tannadice pitch, the Hoops were shaken by a Will Ferry goal in the 51st minute before Emmanuel Agyei drove in a second in the 63rd minute.
The result means an eighth league loss for Celtic this season to leave them in third place, five points behind the leaders and two points behind their Old Firm rivals, with seven fixtures remaining after the international break.
United have beaten Celtic twice in a row at home in the league for the first time since April 1991 and it leaves them six points behind sixth-place Falkirk with two fixtures before the split and still with a chance of a top-half finish.
Jim Goodwin’s side, who beat Celtic 2-1 in December during Wilfried Nancy’s short tenure, was unchanged. Callum McGregor returned to the visitors’ midfield after recovering from a calf injury, while striker Kelechi Iheanacho made his first start since 14 December where he suffered a hamstring injury.
Free-flowing football was at a premium on the heavily sanded pitch and the ball spent a lot of time in the air. In the 13th minute, Celtic defender Kieran Tierney fired over the crossbar following a corner before Ferry’s powerful drive from inside the Hoops penalty area forced a fine save from goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo.
Celtic were stunned early in the second half when Luca Stephenson’s cross escaped a clutch of bodies in front of Sinisalo. Ferry was alone 10 yards out and fired United into the lead.
McGregor and Iheanacho soon made way for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sebastian Tounekti as O’Neill reshuffled. Celtic took control and in the 63rd minute Reo Hatate’s long-range effort was fumbled against the post by Maynard-Brewer, who was glad of the second chance to gather.
And the let-off appeared more significant moments later. After Ferry fought his way into the Celtic box again, his cut-back found Max Watters whose shot was blocked out to Agyei 20 yards from goal. He smartly returned the ball through a forest of legs and into the net. Celtic simply could not find a way back.
On Saturday, Oisin McEntee headed the crucial late goal as Hearts reasserted themselves at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 1-0 win over Dundee. On a tense day at Tynecastle, Hearts looked in danger of dropping points for the second weekend running after their deflating 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock last weekend.
The breakthrough came in the 77th minute when McEntee rose at the back post to head Marc Leonard’s free-kick powerfully beyond Jon McCracken. Hearts were reduced to 10 men in stoppage time when Frankie Kent received a second yellow card for a foul on Charlie Reilly, but they held firm.
“We’ve been tested of late, but despite all that we’re going to be top of the league in April,” said Derek McInnes, the Hearts manager. “We’re huge underdogs, but for us still to be where we are, churning out victories, as we did again, there’s a lot to be said for 1-0 victories.”
Rangers romped into second place behind Hearts with a comfortable 4-1 win over Aberdeen at Ibrox. Danny Röhl’s side responded to Hearts’ victory with Tochi Chukwuani opening the scoring in the 35th minute before 18-year-old Tottenham loanee Mikey Moore added a second three minutes after the break.
Dennis Geiger pulled a goal back for Aberdeen in the 52nd minute but Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin restored their two-goal lead with a fine finish 10 minutes later.
Captain James Tavernier thundered home a stunning free-kick with the last kick of the game to move Rangers back to within three points of Hearts, leapfrogging Celtic into second place.
Röhl said: “A great performance, over 90, 95 minutes. We spoke about this result and performance today, I think we saw both and that’s what makes me really happy today, to see my team perform like this.
“We want to see goals, I think this is always great. I’m a manager, I also want to see clean sheets. This is the only small thing today after the 2-0 that we bring this team back for a short moment. But in general, how we played with a lot of intensity, we were very aggressive against the ball, good positioning in possession.”
Motherwell and Hibernian fought out a scrappy goalless draw at Fir Park that keeps the hosts in pole position to seal a European place. Motherwell are six points clear of Hibs with seven games left.
Livingston are 12 points adrift at the bottom after their 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock. The bottom two met at Rugby Park, with goals from Joe Hugill and Findlay Curtis extending Livingston’s winless league run to 29 games.
St Mirren secured a vital victory for their survival chances thanks to Liam Donnelly’s first goal for the club. The midfielder, playing as an emergency centre-half, headed home in the 63rd minute as Saints won 2-1 for the second time at Falkirk this season.
Barney Stewart’s 17th goal of the season had given Falkirk an early lead, but Miguel Freckleton, culpable in the buildup to the opener, equalised two minutes later for the visitors.
