Bhoys Stay Top With Three Goal Feast

Celtic 3 Aberdeen 0

Celtic maintained their two-point lead at the head of the Scottish Premier League table on Saturday with a well-played 3-0 victory over the Dons at Parkhead.

Scott McDonald opened the scoring in the 39th minute after several decent chances went begging.

Hinkel gathered a ball on the right, sending the ball into the center where McDonald was waiting to fire past a helpless Jamie Langfield.

More wasted chances followed before Aiden McGeady sent in a high ball that was met by the head of Georgios Samaras, who directed it into the net from six yards out.

Samaras picked up his brace when another ball from McGeady was flicked past the keeper in the 76th minute to put the game in the bag.

Despite three more good chances, the Bhoys were unable to add to the scoreline, N'Guemo hitting the post, another Samaras header being cleared off the goal line and Niall McGinn's effort in the closing minutes hitting the post too.

Manager Tony Mowbray was pleased with his team's performance, saying, "We tried to control the game from the off, and generally did that - but Aberdeen made it hard for us, starting with five at the back.

"But we managed to get he breakthrough and got there in the end.

"Aberdeen have some very young and talented players, but we managed to get on top of them, which is important because they have a lot of legs and enthusiasm.

"Thankfully for us, we managed to use the quality we've got to keep the ball off them for long spells.

"At Celtic Park, we've got to be confident, and generally we are. Even through the periods where the results weren't going, that's why I say regardless of dropping points, the performance of the team was very high."

Despite their 2-0 win at Parkhead against Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Celtic were officially eliminated from the Europa League on Wednesday after Hamburg SV beat Rapid Vienna by the same score.

Celtic announced on Friday that they will not be offering a contract to Osman Chavez. The Honduran center-half had been on trial with the Bhoys but he failed to excite manager Tony Mowbray and now will return to his club Platense in the Honduran league.

Former Celtic striker John Hartson received some good news last week when doctors told him that the cancer had been "virtually eradicated" from his body.

The 34-year-old had been diagnosed with testicular cancer in July and told that it had travelled to his brain and his lungs.

Responding to the latest news, Hartson said: "I'm not out of the woods yet, though this is my brightest day for a long time."