Celtic In Pole Position After Victory Over Old Firm Rivals At Ibrox

Georgios Samaras was hailed as "unplayable" (at least as far as rivals Rangers were concerned) by Celtic manager Neil Lennon after scoring both the goals in their 2-0 victory at Ibrox.

Both sets of fans should feel pride that the minute's silence before the game - to mark the 40th Anniversary of the disaster at Ibrox that left 66 dead during the Old Firm derby game on January 2, 1971 - was observed with great respect by all at the game.

For the occassion, former captains John Greig and Billy McNeill led out their teams, but Celtic fans were probably looking forward more to seeing former Arsenal midfield wizard Freddie Ljungberg in the hoops. Unfortunately he'd picked up a virus and was not named to the squad.

Lennon also had to make do without captain Scott Brown, forward Daryl Murphy or the injured Olivier Kapo as he put together a makeshift midfield.

Rangers almost took the lead in the fifth minute when Vladimir Weiss's corner kick was diverted towards the net by Lee McCulloch, but Izaguirre headed the ball off the line and the crossbar to clear the danger.

Paddy McCourt was having a good game in midfield, slotting in behind Samaras and he almost set up the visitors' first goal with a great through ball into the box that found James Forrest. That danger was averted with a fine tackle from McCulloch in the box.

Shortly after the second half began, Samaras set up the best chance of the match so far, when he headed through a ball to McCourt in the box, but the Northern Irishman could only drive the ball wide as he came under pressure from David Weir.

With just under half an hour left, Samaras broke the game wide open when he got on the end of a long ball from Joe Ledley that cleared the Rangers defence. 'Keeper Allan McGregor overcommitted himself leaving Samaras an easy task to round the keeper and roll the ball into the net.

Less than ten minutes later, the game was done and dusted when Bougherra brought down Samaras in the penalty area. He made no mistake, slotting the ball past the helpless McGregor.

Despite increasing pressure from a desperate home side, it was Celtic who came closest to scoring again, with Ledley and Samaras both missing chances.

The win leaves Celtic four points clear at the top of the table, though Rangers do have two games in hand.

"Samaras was a constant menace," said Lennon after the match. "He was top drawer.

"I thought he was a real handful. I thought he was unplayable from Rangers' point of view.

"That's four points and it''s a decent wee lead at the minute," he continued. "I know Rangers have two games in hand but they are both away and they have some hard games coming up.

"But there's a lot of football to be played. Even if we had lost, I still wouldn't have said the league was over but the fact we have won gives us a real chance.

"I hope it is a turning point but you never can tell. In the end, I don't think Rangers caused us any problems whatsoever."