Scottish Premier League Preview

[RAB - P]

Hamilton v Rangers

Venue: New Douglas Park Date: Saturday, 16 January Kick-off: 1230

Hamilton midfielder James Wesolowski is out after suffering a hamstring injury in Wednesday's defeat to Dundee United.

New arrival David van Zanten was an unused substitute in midweek but could make his debut on Saturday.

Rangers will be without injured top scorer Kris Boyd and his suspended strike partner Kenny Miller.

Lee McCulloch is also banned and Madjid Bougherra is on international duty but Nacho Novo and Steven Davis are expected to shrug off recent knocks.

Hamilton (from) : Cerny, Hastings, Kirkpatrick, McClenahan, Canning, McLaughlin, Mensing, Elliott, Crawford, McArthur, Antoine-Curier, Neil, M Paixao, Murdoch, Elebert, van Zanten, Sullivan, F Paixao.

Rangers (from): McGregor, Broadfoot, Wilson, Weir, Papac, Whittaker, Davis, Thomson, Lafferty, Little, Edu, Smith, Novo, Alexander, Fleck, Ness, Wylde, Loy.

Celtic v Falkirk

Venue: Celtic Park Date: Saturday, 16 January Kick-off: 1500

New Celtic signing Jos Hooiveld is unlikely to feature since he has not played competitively since November.

Gary Caldwell and Barry Robson have been sold, while Scott McDonald is out after hernia surgery and Landry N'Guemo is away with Cameroon.

Enoch Showunmi, Colin Healy and Jack Compton are all in line for their Falkirk debuts.

Jackie McNamara is closing in on a comeback following a knee injury but he may have to wait until next week.

Celtic (from): Boruc, Loovens, McManus, Fox, Hinkel, Fortune, McGeady, Crosas, Samaras, Zheng, McGinn, Wilson, Ki, Caddis, Zaluska, Forrest, McCourt.

Falkirk (from): Olejnik, Barr, McLean, Pele, Twaddle, Arfield, Lima, Healy, Flynn, Finnigan, Moutinho, Wagenaar, Mitchell, Compton, Showunmi, O'Brien, Bullen, Marceta.

Kilmarnock v Motherwell

Venue: Rugby Park Date: Saturday, 16 January Kick-off: 1500

New Kilmarnock manager Jimmy Calderwood is likely to turn to goalkeeper Cameron Bell for his first match in charge.

Mark Brown's loan deal from Celtic has expired and first-choice keeper Alan Combe is still working his way back from hip surgery.

Motherwell central defenders Shaun Hutchinson and Steven Saunders are both struggling to shake off knocks.

Midfielder Tom Hateley has taken medication this week to combat a throat infection and is expected to be fit.

Kilmarnock (from) : Bell, O'Leary, Ford, Hamill, Fowler, Wright, Skelton, Bryson, Pascali, Invincibile, Burchill, Fernandez, Kyle, Robinson, Taouil, Flannigan, Owens, Kelly.

Motherwell (from): Ruddy, Hateley, Hammell, Craigan, Reynolds, Jennings, Lasley, Forbes, Coke, O'Brien, Murphy, Jutkiewicz, Sutton, McHugh, Page, Humphrey, Saunders, Fraser.

St Johnstone v Aberdeen

Venue: McDiarmid Park Date: Saturday, 16 JanuaryKick-off: 1500

Striker Cillian Sheridan could make his St Johnstone debut after agreeing a loan move from Celtic.

Dave MacKay, Stuart McCaffrey and Andy Jackson are back from injury, but Collin Samuel, Kevin Rutkiewicz and Martin Hardie remain sidelined.

Aberdeen striker Lee Miller misses out as he serves the final game of his three-match suspension.

Midfielders Sone Aluko and Gary McDonald and defender Zander Diamond are still injured for the visitors.

Saturday's match will be the subject of a 1100 GMT pitch inspection and the home club have appealed for volunteers to help in a tidy-up operation at McDiarmid Park.

St Johnstone (from): Smith, Grainger, Irvine, MacKay, Gartland, Morris, Davidson, Millar, Moon, Craig, MacDonald, Morais, Deuchar, Milne, Main, Anderson, May, Durnan, Sheridan, McCaffrey, Jackson.

Aberdeen: (from): Langfield, Considine, Ifil, Foster, Duff, Grassi, Mulgrew, Young, Kerr, Wright, Pawlett, Paton, Fyvie, Crawford, Maguire, Mackie, Marshall, Ross, Nelson, Jack.

Dundee Utd v Hibernian

Venue: Tannadice Park Date: Saturday, 16 January Kick-off:

Dundee United hope defender Garry Kenneth recovers from a virus in time to face Hibernian on Saturday.

David Goodwillie and David Robertson should shake off knocks but Francisco Sandaza, Lee Wilkie, Danny Cadamarteri and Scott Robertson are out.

Hibs welcome back defender Darren McCormack from suspension and Yves Ma-Kalambay is fit again.

Fellow goalkeeper Graham Stack is still sidelined with a back injury, so Graeme Smith is set to continue.

Dundee United: (from) Pernis, Dixon, Dods, Kenneth, Webster, Watson, Dillon, Kovacevic, Buaben, Gomis, D Robertson, Swanson, Conway, Shala, Myrie-Williams, Daly, Goodwillie, Casalinuovo, Banks.

Hibernian (from): Smith, Ma-Kalambay, McCormack, Murray, Hogg, Hanlon, Miller, Cregg, McBride, Rankin, Stokes, Riordan, Zemmama, Byrne, Stevenson, Galbraith, Wotherspoon, Nish, Benjelloun.

Hearts v St Mirren

Venue: Tynecastle Park Date: Saturday, 16 January Kick-off: 1500

Hearts full-back Jason Thomson has recovered from a hamstring complaint but Jose Goncalves remains sidelined with a thigh injury.

Andy Driver and Calum Elliot are still out with knee problems, while Craig Thomson, Dawid Kucharski Arvydas Novikovas are also missing.

St Mirren will be without Stephen McGinn after he agreed a transfer to Championship side Watford.

Mo Camara is still out with a virus and Lee Mair still has a groin problem.

Hearts (from): Kello, J Thomson, Zaliukas, Bouzid, Wallace, Suso, M Stewart, Jonsson, Palazuelos, Smith, Robinson, Balogh, Nade, Visconte, Templeton, Obua, Balatoni, Glen, Cinikas, J Stewart.

St Mirren (from): Gallacher, Innes, Barron, Potter, Thomson, Ross, Dorman, Johnston, Murray, Higdon, Dargo, Mehmet, Robb, O'Donnell, Howard, Burns, Ramsay, Devlin

 

[RAB - P]

Hamilton 0 - 1 Rangers

Rangers recorded their first victory of 2010 with a hard-fought win over Hamilton at New Douglas Park.

Accies' Simon Mensing came closest to scoring in the first half, his close-range shot blocked by Danny Wilson.

Kyle Lafferty's header was claimed by Hamilton goalkeeper Tomas Cerny before Rangers made a late breakthrough.

Cerny blocked John Fleck's shot but could do nothing to prevent Nacho Novo squeezing home the rebound with 12 minutes remaining.

The result extends Scottish Premier League leaders Rangers' advantage over Celtic to 10 points, but Tony Mowbray's side can reduce it back to seven when they host Falkirk later on Saturday.

The visitors were without their first-choice striking partnership of Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller due to injury and suspension respectively and replacements Lafferty and Novo combined to create an opening in the fourth minute.

A one-two put Lafferty through on goal but the Northern Ireland international's lobbed shot drifted wide as goalkeeper Tomas Cerny raced from his line.

Hamilton, buoyed by their performance in the 3-3 draw between these two sides in last week's Scottish Cup clash, put Rangers on the back foot when Richard Hastings crossed for Marco Paixao, but the Portuguese forward headed straight into the arms of Allan McGregor.

Accies continued to put Rangers under pressure and almost took the lead when Hastings' cut-back was fired towards goal by Mensing but Wilson got across to divert the ball wide.

Mensing then raced onto a through ball by Marco Paixao but could not direct a shot on target as he came under pressure from the Rangers defence.

Captain David Weir came to Rangers' rescue with a last-ditch tackle on Mickael Antoine-Curier and Steven Davis volleyed wide of the Hamilton goal as the first half drew to a close.

Rangers were more enterprising after the break and Steven Whittaker had efforts wide of target either side of Cerny's save from Lafferty's header.

Hamilton looked to relieve some of the pressure coming onto their backline and Antoine-Curier outpaced Weir only to shoot into the side-netting before Marco Paixao's deflected effort looped into the arms of McGregor.

Fleck had earlier been introduced as a replacement for Kirk Broadfoot and played a crucial role in the run-up to Rangers' opener.

The youngster received Papac's pass on the edge of the box and fired towards goal and, after Cerny had blocked low to his right, Novo found the net from a tight angle.

Lafferty's frustration in front of goal continued when his tame shot was smothered by Cerny after Rangers had beaten the offside trap and Papac was also denied by the keeper.

Accies went in search of a late leveller and Weir made another crucial interception to prevent Antoine-Curier getting in a shot.

More forceful attacking by Rangers created openings for Davis, Fleck and Whittaker in the closing stages but only the latter made Cerny work.

These sides are due to meet again on Tuesday evening at Ibrox in the replay of their Scottish Cup fourth-round tie.

 

[J]

go on the falkirk:Clap:

 

[Paul-K]

get to fook the falkirk

Did you here them sing "we are the people" lol

 

[RAB - P]

SPL photo gallery

 

[J]

SPL photo gallery

good stuff rab.

@paul
when we go more than 10pts clear u fookers will need take ur shoes off to count.

 

[snapman]

Again, great set of pics mate.

 

[DigiBairn]

Did you here them sing "we are the people" lol

? :err:

You mean sing "We are the STEEPLE", as surprisingly, the Falkirk badge is a Steeple.

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