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Scottish Premiership matches of the 16th round took place on Saturday. One of the championship's underdogs, "Dunfermline", provided a significant surprise by defeating league leaders Glasgow "Celtic" away from home, marking their first home defeat of the season and only the second overall. Taking advantage of the opponents' failure, Edinburgh "Hearts" managed to snatch a point in the match against "Motherwell", reducing the gap from the top spot to a minimum. Despite facing numerous injury problems before this round, "Dunfermline" had suffered seven consecutive defeats and played against the recently crowned leaders "Celtic", who seemed to be in great form after two consecutive wins in Glasgow derbies, away from home. In the 17th minute of the match, Andy Tod's header found Greg Ross, who sent the ball into the net of the Glasgow team from a long-range shot. "Dunfermline" almost doubled their lead soon after, but this time G. Ross's shot was saved by the home goalkeeper Artur Boruc. After a very poor start in the second half, "Celtic" began to attack the opponents' goal, but failed to capitalize on opportunities to score and had to admit their first failure in front of their fans this season. Edinburgh "Hearts" team is one point behind "Celtic". In the match against "Motherwell" away from home, due to injury, Edgaras Jankauskas could not play, Saulius Mikoliūnas returned to the starting lineup, and Deividas Česnauskis remained on the bench, appearing on the field only ten minutes before the end of the match. Despite a sluggish first half, where "Motherwell" threatened the opponents' goal more frequently despite the territorial advantage of the visitors, Edinburgh team's goalkeeper Craig Gordon saved his team by first denying Scott McDonald's attempt, followed by Shaun Fagan's. Five minutes before the end of the first half, "Motherwell" broke the deadlock when defender Brian McLean scored from close range after a penalty. However, as in the previous matches against "Aberdeen", conceding a goal after the break seemed to wake up the "Hearts" players, who started to push the opponents. The hosts defended well, but in the last minute of the match, B. McLean, who scored a goal, committed a foul in the penalty area against Andy Webster, and Paul Hartley converted the penalty from 11 meters, leveling the score. In other matches, the home teams also failed to win - "Inverness" played a draw with "Dundee", "Kilmarnock" thrashed the bottom-placed "Livingston" away, and "Aberdeen" won against "Falkirk" on their opponents' field. On Sunday, Edinburgh "Hibernian" will host crisis-stricken Glasgow "Rangers". League table 16th round results 0 - 1 17` [0 - 1] Greg Ross 1 - 2 45` [0 - 1] Craig Ireland (own goal) 51` [0 - 2] Russell Anderson 83` [1 - 2] Daniel McBreen 1 - 1 7` [0 - 1] Lee Miller (pen.) 20` [1 - 1] Ross Tokely 0 - 3 26` [0 - 1] Kris Boyd 29` [0 - 2] Steven Naismith 82` [0 - 3] Kris Boyd 1 - 1 40` [1 - 0] Brian McLean 90` [1 - 1] Paul Hartley (pen.)
