Contrasting fortunes for Celtic and Rangers
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DAVID McKINNEY
Celtic closed the gap on Rangers at the top of the Premier Division to four points and both sides will be looking to close the European gap this week with Rangers facing a daunting home tie against Juventus while Celtic are hosts to Paris Saint Germain.
Their preparations offered contrasting fortunes, Rangers struggling to a 2-2 draw with Raith Rovers while Celtic were 2-0 victors over Aberdeen, who had earlier in the week defeated Rangers in the semi-final of the Coca-Cola Cup.
With Andreas Thom out of action, the Celtic striker Andy Walker gave his manager something to think about with a good performance against Aberdeen, who were beaten by goals from Brian McLaughlin and Pierre Van Hooijdonk.
Rangers have problems ahead of Wednesday with suspension ruling out Gordon Durie, Alan McLaren and Alex Cleland. The return of their captain Richard Gough will be a plus for Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, who also hopes to welcome back Stuart McCall.
The bottom of the Premier Division has bunched up with Falkirk, Kilmarnock and Hearts sharing bottom place with eight points, two behind Motherwell and Partick Thistle.
Thistle scored a last minute goal to beat Motherwell, while Falkirk and Hibs recorded comfortable 2-0 wins over Hearts and Kilmarnock respectively.
The main talking point of the weekend was at Airdrie, where the home side felt they were cheated by the referee who allowed two Dundee goals to stand as they won 3-2. Dougie Smith twice allowed play to continue when a Dundee man was in an offside position but walking away from the play, and under the new interpretation of the laws he was perfectly entitled to do so.
However, Alex MacDonald the Airdrie manager, said: "This is about livelihoods and whether I can keep my house and keep my children dressed and it is the same for my players. The game does not give the referee his livelihood.''
While his comments are likely to lead to MacDonald being disciplined by the SFA, the Airdrie board have backed their manager by awarding their players a win bonus despite their defeat.
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