Celtic brush Motherwell aside to go six points clear

Celtic eased six points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Motherwell yesterday.

The champions now have 59 points from 23 games after goals by Bulgarian Stilian Petrov and Chris Sutton secured victory.

Petrov squeezed the ball under goalkeeper Gordon Marshall after 31 minutes and Sutton sealed the points by pouncing on a bad pass by Motherwell's Scott McDonald to slide home the second.

Hibernian stay in third place after a 3-0 home win over Kilmarnock. Derek Riordan scored a hat-trick. Hibs have 43 points.

Meanwhile, Rangers manager Alex McLeish said he always raised his game as an Aberdeen player against the Glasgow side and expects their current crop to provide equally stiff opposition today. Trouble often brews on and off the pitch when Rangers visit Aberdeen and McLeish is prepared for a tough battle.

"As a player it was a huge fixture and I believe that Aberdeen players now still treat it as a huge fixture," he told a news conference.

"They always raise their game. I always raised my game playing against Rangers but now my focus is purely on Rangers."