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In the Scottish championship on Saturday, eight out of ten league teams finished the main part of the season with five matches, after which the championship is divided into two parts. "Aberdeen" secured the last remaining place in the first six, while the situation did not change in the battle for the second place, as "Hearts", featuring Saulius Mikoliūnas, achieved a convincing victory, and "Rangers" secured a narrow win.
After the defeat against "Celtic" on Wednesday, Edinburgh's "Hearts" coach Valdas Ivanauskas made four changes to the starting lineup - the injured Edgaras Jankauskas in attack was replaced by Michal Pospišil, recovered defenders Steven Pressley and Jose Goncalves replaced Andy Webster and Christophe Berra, and Julien Brellier's place in the midfield was taken by Bruno Aguiar.
Lithuanians Deividas Česnauskis and Saulius Mikoliūnas started the match actively, and they were the first to threaten the opponents' goal, but one shot was off target, and the goalkeeper saved the other attempt.
"Hearts" broke the deadlock in the 7th minute - a long pass from Robbie Neilson from outside the box was converted into a goal by M. Pospišil with a close-range shot. Just seven minutes later, another Czech Roman Bednar doubled the lead, heading in R. Neilson's cross past goalkeeper Allan McGregor.
"Hearts" completely dominated the match, and in the middle of the first half, they scored the third goal against "Dunfermline". R. Neilson again provided an assist - he laid the ball off to S. Mikoliūnas in the penalty area, and the Lithuanian striker avoided the opponent to send the ball into the top corner. At the end of the first half, D. Česnauskis also had a chance to score, but his attempt was slightly off target.
In the second half, the hosts calmed down a bit, but the visitors still had to defend more, and on two occasions, A. Aguiar attacked the "Dunfermline" goal, but his shots were also off target. With the victory secured, V. Ivanauskas gave a chance to two winter signings at the club - Bosnian Mirsad Bešlija, who replaced Saulius Mikoliūnas, and Finnish striker Juho Makela.
Makela took advantage of the opportunity in the 82nd minute, when he headed in a corner to score past A. McGregor. Both teams finished the match with ten men, as for a bad foul, "Dunfermline" player Greg Ross was sent off, and injured B. Aguiar couldn't continue playing.
Celebrating the 120th anniversary of the "Tynecastle" stadium, "Hearts" secured a convincing victory and are still ahead of last year's champions Glasgow "Rangers" by three points, who defeated "Motherwell" with the only goal of the match scored by Kris Boyd, and made the opponent stay in the seventh position.
"Aberdeen" secured the sixth position with a narrow victory against Edinburgh's "Hibernian". The winning goal for the hosts was scored by Scott Severin with a powerful shot in the first half. In other matches, the outsiders - "Falkirk" defeated "Dundee United" 1-0 and maintained a ten-point advantage over the absolute outsider "Livingston", which saved their hopes of avoiding relegation with a victory against "Inverness".
On Sunday, in the last matches of the 33rd round, "Kilmarnock" aiming to climb to fourth place will face the already champions Glasgow "Celtic". After this match, the league will be divided into two parts - the first and second six of the league will play against each other after five matches.
Saturday's results
1 - 0
21` [1 - 0] Scott Severin
1 - 0
23` [1 - 0] Jack Ross
4 - 0
7` [1 - 0] Michal Pospisil
14` [2 - 0] Roman Bednar
25` [3 - 0] Saulius Mikoliūnas
82` [4 - 0] Juho Makela
87` Greg Ross ("Dunfermline") sent off
2 - 1
16` [0 - 1] Ross Tokely
37` [1 - 1] Richard Brittain
81` [2 - 1] Colin Healy
1 - 0
27` [1 - 0] Kris Boyd
League table:
