In the "Premier" league of Scotland, after the 4th round matches played on Saturday, the championship leader Edinburgh "Hearts" remained unbeaten, while Rangers convincingly won the tense Glasgow clubs derby.
The impressively started season "Hearts" continues to play very successfully and this time met the "Aberdeen" club at home, which unexpectedly defeated the "Rangers" team after a dramatic end to last week's match.
Before this match, "Hearts" coach G.Burley did not make any substitutions in the starting lineup of the team, so the match started with S.Mikoliūnas and E.Jankauskas on the field, while D.Česnauskis, despite his goal in the Lithuanian national team match, remained on the bench.
At the beginning of the match, the most active were the duo of Czech R.Škacel and R.Bednar, who created a couple of chances for Jankauskas to score, but initially he missed with his left foot and later failed to direct the ball into the goal with his head.
The hosts broke ahead in the 20th minute when Škacel accurately struck the ball after receiving a bounced ball in the penalty area. Later, good opportunities were not taken by S.Pressley, so the first half ended with "Hearts" leading 1-0.
After the break, like in the previous match, Mikoliūnas did not return to the field, and he was replaced again by J.McAllister. The latter was close to scoring a goal until the end of the match, but hit the post, and M.Pospišilas secured the victory for the Edinburgh club after receiving a pass from Jankauskas and sending the ball into the net with a beautiful strike.
Meanwhile, in the Glasgow derby, "Rangers" achieved a convincing victory and moved up to second place in the league, defeating the "Celtic" team 3-1 at home, where two players received red cards. The hosts took the lead after goals from D.Pršo and T.Buffel, and although S.Maloney softened the difference with a penalty kick in the 86th minute, N.Novo soon scored from the penalty spot and sealed the winning result.
In other matches, Edinburgh "Hibernian" won 2-0 away against the league newcomer "Falkirk", "Dundee Utd" defeated "Motherwell" in a lively and very productive match, where 9 goals were scored, and the meetings of "Inverness CT" and "Kilmarnock" as well as "Livingston" and "Dunfermline" without A.Skerlos ended in draws.
Results of the 4th round
3 - 1 34' [1 - 0] Dado Prso 51' [2 - 0] Thomas Buffel 86' [2 - 1] Shaun Maloney (pen.) 88' [3 - 1] Nacho Novo (pen.) 32' Alan Thompson, 90' Neil Lennon ("Celtic") sent off 0 - 2 36' [0 - 1] Scott Brown 63' [0 - 2] Derek Riordan (pen.) 2 - 0 20' [1 - 0] Rudi Skacel 85' [2 - 0] Michal Pospisil 2 - 2 40' [1 - 0] Craig Brewster 71' [1 - 1] Colin Nish 72' [2 - 1] Craig Brewster 74' [2 - 2] Kris Boyd 1 - 1 44' [0 - 1] Lee Makel 64' [1 - 1] Ramon Pereira 4 - 5 6' [1 - 0] Alan McCormack 12' [2 - 0] Scott McDonald 42' [2 - 1] Lee Miller 49' [3 - 1] Marc Fitzpatrick 53' [3 - 2] David Fernandez 57' [4 - 2] Jim Hamilton 67' [4 - 3] Lee Miller 71' [4 - 4] Grant Brebner 74' [4 - 5] Grant Brebner