Celtic aim to keep winning ways against Motherwell

Scottish champions Celtic were going stride for stride with bitter rivals Rangers today as both teams kicked off at the same time.

Martin O’Neill’s men were a point to the good prior to kick-off at Parkhead and in Rangers’ match against Hearts at Tynecastle and nobody was backing against them staying there by the end of the 90 minutes as they welcomed rock-bottom Motherwell to Parkhead.

O'Neill rested Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Stilian Petrov and Ulrik Laursen and in came Paul Lambert, Alan Thompson, David Fernandez and Stephen Crainey.

Motherwell manager Terry Butcher must also have been fearing the worst as he had to make do without David Partridge, Daniel Sengewald and Stephen Pearson, who were red-carded in last week’s defeat at Hibernian while Keith Lasley and Dougie Ramsay were injured.

But the former Rangers favourite could again call on Scott Leitch after suspension and James McFadden after recovering fully from injury problems.