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In the "Premier" league of Scotland, five matches took place on Saturday. Edinburgh's "Hearts" club returned to the path of victories, as Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov, who owns up to 80 percent of the shares, increased his stake today. The other capital club, "Hibernian," in third place, experienced a failure away, while Glasgow's "Rangers" continued their decline with a draw at home.
This time, like in the previous match, there was no injured Edgaras Jankauskas in the ranks of "Hearts," Deividas Česnauskis remained on the bench, and Saulius Mikoliūnas started the match from the beginning. In the match against "Livingston" at home, the Edinburgh team sought to give the first victory to recently appointed head coach Graham Rix.
The hosts were led by none other than the team's most productive player Rudi Škacel - in the 8th minute, the Czech legionnaire's excellent shot from 20 meters did not leave goalkeeper Ludovic Roy with much hope. Just seven minutes later, the "Hearts" defender doubled the lead with another accurate shot. Calum Elliot, who stopped at the penalty area, sent the ball to R.Škacel, who scored his 13th goal of the season.
At the beginning of the second half, Roman Bednar, who returned to the starting lineup of "Hearts" after an injury, missed good chances, shooting wide after a great play and pass from S.Mikoliūnas from the edge of the field. This allowed the "Livingston" team to have hope in this match, as in the 63rd minute Allan Walker softened the score with a long shot into the top corner of the goal.
The hosts, having conceded a goal, seemed to wake up and started to storm the visitors' goal, but the crossbar saved them twice - first, R.Bednar's shot hit the goal construction, and later the same thing happened after M.Pošpišilo's attempt to pass to teammates. D.Česnauskis appeared on the pitch in the last minute, replacing C.Elliot, and a comical "Livingston" goal was disallowed when the ball was thrown directly into the goal from the sidelines.
"Hearts" continued their hundred percent streak at home with their eighth victory in front of their own fans and overtook the "Celtic" club in the league table, who will play their match against "Aberdeen" tomorrow. Meanwhile, Edinburgo "Hibernian" fell six points behind the leaders, after admitting a minimal advantage to "Dundee Utd" away.
Falling to fifth place, the "Rangers," last year's champions who have failed to win in nine consecutive matches, failed to maintain a two-goal lead at home against "Falkirk" and played to a 2-2 draw.
Seizing this, by now common, stumble of the Glasgow team, "Kilmarnock" won on the road with a single goal against "Dunfermline." The victory was decided by Kris Boyd's precise shot, who shares the top spot in the goal scorers list with R.Škacel.
Two points behind the "Rangers," the team "Inverness" jumped to sixth place, overcoming the resistance of their neighboring team "Motherwell" in a fierce battle away. Craig Dargo scored both goals for the winners.
League table
Results of Saturday matches of the 17th round
1 - 0
61` [1 - 0] Collin Samuel
0 - 1
41` [0 - 1] Kris Boyd
2 - 1
8` [1 - 0] Rudi Skacel
15` [2 - 0] Rudi Skacel
63` [2 - 1] Allan Walker
0 - 2
63` [0 - 1] Craig Dargo
88` [0 - 2] Craig Dargo
2 - 2
39` [1 - 0] Craig Ireland (own goal)
56` [2 - 0] Peter Lovenkrands (11m.)
69` [2 - 1] Alan Gow
71` [2 - 2] Pedro Moutinho
