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Over the weekend, the 9th round of matches was played in the Scottish league. The league leaders, Edinburgh "Hearts", saw their eight-game winning streak come to an end - the "Lithuanian" club fought back in a tense and dramatic away match after being two goals down and managed to snatch a point against "Falkirk", while the Glasgow clubs chasing the leader simply "swept" their opponents aside. "Hearts", with Lithuanian E.Jankauskas back in the starting lineup, started the match in attack alongside the Czech R.Pospišil, who returned from injury, while D.Česnauskis and S.Mikoliūnas remained on the bench. Away from home, they faced the underdog "Falkirk". Although the favorite was clear in the match, Edinburgh had an unlucky opponent - in the last meeting between the two teams in January 2003, "Falkirk" had won a resounding 4-0 victory at home. The match didn't promise anything good this time either: it started evenly and the hosts tried not to give in to their opponents. Midway through the first half they even took the lead when D.Duffy, one-on-one with the visiting goalkeeper C.Gordon, was fouled and the referee awarded a penalty, which D.Duffy himself converted. Clearly shaken, the "Hearts" players gradually recovered after the break, but it was "Falkirk" who came closer to scoring, but D.Duffy's shot was saved by the goalkeeper S.Banks who appeared on the field as a substitute. In the 56th minute, the visitors were close to scoring - after a pass from the flank, R.Škacel shot from a few meters out, E.Jankauskas' header was blocked by a defender, and P.Hartley missed the target. In the 67th minute, the hosts doubled their lead, with "Hearts" captain S.Pressley scoring into his own net. Initially trying to clear the ball back, goalkeeper S.Banks repelled D.Duffy's attempt, but the ball rebounded off a visiting defender and rolled into the net. However, the captain soon rectified his mistake, converting a penalty from a long-distance free kick into a goal. As the match approached its end, Edinburgh's coach brought on D.Česnauskis, who revitalized his team's play, helping to press the opponents on their half of the field. "Hearts" stormed "Falkirk" goal and in the last minute, after R.Škacel's shot rebounded into an empty net, the same S.Pressley scored, helping the club secure an important psychological point before the upcoming away match against "Celtic". "Celtic" had an easy time in their match - they thrashed "Livingston" away by a margin of five goals. The scorers for the winners were the young S.McManus, S.Maloney, the Pole M.Zurawski, C.Sutton, and C.Beattie. The Glasgow team, currently in second place, is three points behind "Hearts" before their meeting next Sunday. The reigning champions, Glasgow "Rangers", also managed to bounce back, defeating "Dunfermline" 5-1 at home. T.Buffel and D.Pršo scored in the first half, and although N.Hunt managed to soften the result, convincing goals from F.Nieto, P.Lovenkrands, and R.McCormack secured a comfortable victory for the hosts. Edinburgh "Hibernian" suffered their third defeat in a row and dropped to fourth place, losing at home to "Inverness CT" due to the sending off of player-coach C.Brewster in the second half. The other two matches ended in draws - "Aberdeen" recovered at home after conceding goals against "Motherwell", managing to score twice despite having one player sent off, while "Dundee Utd" and "Kilmarnock" ended their match goalless.
