On Saturday Motherwell come to Celtic Park to take on the Champions. They have been one of the surprise packages in this seasons SPFL. Hearts remain in the driving seat 4 points ahead of Celtic as we head into the business end of the season. Celtic’s win away to Aberdeen seen them leap frog the rangers into second in the table and now sit 1 point ahead of our Glasgow rivals.
Motherwell dropped points away to Dundee in their last outing and some believe they are now out of the running in what many were calling a four horse race. After that 2-1 defeat at Dens Park they now sit 4 points behind the rangers. All top 4 teams have now played 29 games and on Saturday Celtic will need to put in a big shift to secure all 3 points. The sold out game kicks off at 3pm and will be streamed live on Celtic TV.
Motherwell have been very impressive this season under Jens Berthel Askou. The last time they visited Celtic Park back in October they took the lead twice against Celtic and it took a 93rd minute goal from Maeda to secure all 3 points. Brendan Rodgers was in charge that day and when Celtic visited Motherwell at the end of December with Wilfried Nancy in charge the home team played Celtic off the park.
The Motherwell manager has been linked with the permanent job at Celtic after impressing with both results and the style of football he has the team playing. Celtic on the other hand have been a shadow of their former self with poor player recruitment and injuries playing their part in a strange season.
Martin O’Neill has done an incredible job having stepped in twice to steady the Celtic ship. Saturday will be the first time both managers lock horns. After 4 matches on the road Celtic fans will be back home and hoping that we don’t see a repeat of the Hibs defeat last time out on the Paradise turf.
Hearts travel to Kilmarnock for an 8pm kick off on Saturday while the rangers travel to St. Mirren on Sunday for a midday kick off. Both games are live on Sky Sports.
Elsewhere the Dundee derby is the pick of the weekend games. Kick off is 2pm on Sunday. Aberdeen host Falkirk and Hibs host Livingston both 3pm on Saturday.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast
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