Rangers Stay Seven Clear After Parkhead Draw

Celtic 1 Rangers 1

Celtic stayed seven points behind Rangers in second place in the Scottish Premier League after drawing 1-1 at Parkhead last Sunday. The Bhoys have a game in hand after the postponement of their Boxing Day game against Kilmarnock.

Controversy was the order of the day on Sunday though as Marc-Antoine Fortune's goal was waved off by the referee and Rangers' Kyle Lafferty was allowed to remain on the field despite a nasty challenge on Andreas Hinkel.

Celtic were by far the stronger of the two teams despite Mowbray's decision to drop Scott McDonald, starting Fortune as the partner for Georgios Samaras up front.

He also replaced Stephen McManus with the returning Gary Caldwell who had been suspended after picking up a red card.

Rangers lost Nacho Novo in the 11th minute through injury, replacing him with Maurice Edu and their play suffered as a result with Celtic controlling possession and putting Rangers' defence under constant pressure.

The expected breakthrough appeared to come in the 19th minute when Fortune headed the ball into the net from five yards out. Referee Steve Conroy thought differently though and ruled that Fortune had used his arm to challenge McGregor to the McGeady volley that led to the disallowed goal.

While that decision may have been the correct one, he made a mistake a few minutes later when he only showed Lafferty a yellow card, despite the fact that he had led with the studs in a challenge with Hinkel.

Samaras and McGeady were both wasteful in front of goal but the Bhoys looked to have secured the victory they deserved when, in the 79th minute, McDonald (who had been brought on at last) headed home a cross from McGeady for the go-ahead goal.

Disaster struck two minutes later though when McCulloch rose above the Celtic defence to head in a Steven Davis corner from ten yards out - Rangers first real shot on target.

Despite some good chances, the Bhoys were unable to reestablish the lead and had to suffice with sharing the points with their cross-town rivals.

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray thought the team deserved more from the fixture, especially given that, "We played on the front foot. We pushed them back.

"I think we felt we had done enough to come away with three points.

"I thought the referee had a good game. He obviously saw a free kick against Fortune and gave it. You have to abide by the decisions.

"I am trying to build a team not just to win the league this season but for the next four or five years and hopefully our brand of football will do that in the long run."