Celtic Stay Two Clear After Scoreless Old Firm Derby

Celtic 0 Rangers 0

Celtic maintained their two-point lead in the Scottish Premier League after playing out a scoreless draw at Parkhead at the weekend.

Rangers started the game slowly, apparently happy to smother Celtic's momentum in the first half, and just playing a single striker - Kyle Lafferty - up front.

Despite this, the Bhoys should have been up by one after a quarter of an hour though, when Willo Flood - who was making his debut in hoops - beat Fleck in wide-right then passed a lovely cross into the box which was headed wide by Scott McDonald.

Celtic seemed much the better team for the rest of the half, but despite all the best efforts of Shunsuke Nakamura the game remained goalless at the half.

Rangers looked more lively in the second half, Madjid Bougherra coming close after five minutes, when his shot was deflected towards his own goal by Celtic captain Stephen McManus. Fortunately, 'keeper Artur Boruc seemed to have returned to form and managed to make a quick and effective save.

Kenny Miller, on as a substitute for Fleck from the Rangers bench, almost put this visitors into the lead, running onto a back-heeled ball from Steven Davies, but he fired the ball wide of Boruc's goal.

Boruc was the man-of-the-match though, saving his team late when Weir got his head to a Mendes corner and tipping the ball over the bar.

It looked like the Parkhead faithful might go home happy when Celtic were awarded a free-kick in the 89th minute but Nakamura's shot from 25 yards out was palmed away by McGregor and Broadfoot cleared the danger.

Manager Gordon Strachan was rueful, and realistic, about his team's performance saying, "At the moment we're not at our best, so we've just got to plug along until we get back there.

"But we've got good players and they will come again.

"To put it simply, last week we were two points ahead of Rangers with 14 games to go; this week we are two points ahead with 13 games to go."

"Up front, we're not functioning, as a group - because there are five strikers at the club," he added. "That group has to come to the fore now and score us goals.

"All you can do is keep working at it and there's a bit of magic that needs to come along, or a bit of luck to get these guys scoring again.

"It's not for the lack of effort, that's for sure."

Rangers again face a probe by the SPL after the match delegate reported that their fans were chanting sectarian songs, including the infamous 'Famine Song'.

If it is proved that they were engaging in sectarian chanting then the club could face a fine or even a points deduction.