SPL Round up

Rangers won their first competitive game under Ally McCoist, while Motherwell’s draw at Kilmarnock kept them top of the table last night.

After a draw with Hearts last week and a midweek defeat by Malmo in the Champions League in midweek Rangers finally gave Ally McCoist his first win as manager with a 2-0 win at McDiarmid Park yesterday.

The opening stages were tight with Saints producing the best effort of the opening 15 minutes when McGregor was forced to save from a Callum Davidson shot. The nerves were eased just after the half hour mark when Steven Naismith headed Rangers into the lead.

The game was effectively sealed when Jelavic made it two nil six minutes after the break.

Despite the win all the talk surrounding the Ibrox club is still about their efforts to bring in David Goodwillie from Dundee United, given they had a third bid for the player turned down yesterday.

Down at Rugby Park Motherwell and Kilmarnock played out an entertaining nil nil draw, which was enough to keep the Well on top of the SPL after the opening two games.

The man responsible for keeping the scoreline blank was home keeper Cammy Bell as he produced two great saves to deny Rob McHugh and Steven Jennings.

Hibs won their first game of the season and in the process consigned Inverness to their second straight defeat. The winning goal came from returning hero Gary O’Connor whose stoppage time shot looked as though it should have been dealt with by Ryan Esson in the ICT goal.

Saint Mirren joined Motherwell and Rangers on four points with an excellent home win over Aberdeen. The only goal coming in the second half from Nigel Haaselbaink, but in truth the scoreline should have been much greater.

The first two weeks of the season only appear to have confirmed that there is little to choose between the teams outside the top two, and it could take a few weeks before we know who will be fighting for what as the season progresses.