SPFL Match-Day 8 - Winners & Losers

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It's been an action packed weekend of football in Scotland with so many outcomes for different sets of fans. Many entered work this morning on cloud nine with all the bragging rights, however, for every one of those fans, there was the fan hiding behind their desk.

This blog looks at some of match-day eight's winner and losers.

Winners - Alloa Athletic

Let's start at the beginning of the weekend with the Championship's Friday night affair between Alloa and Dundee United - top versus bottom. With the visitors currently cruising their way to six goal victories and their main-man, Shankland, hitting goal scoring numbers that saw him earn a Scotland call-up, nobody was expecting anything other than a routine away win. Peter Grant and his resilient Wasps had other ideas though as they gave the Arabs a footballing lesson in a 1-0 win. Kevin O'Hara's goal after great team play gave Alloa their first home league win of the season and saw them shoot up the league to 7th.


Winners - Rangers

After the misery of Thursday nights Europa League defeat, Sunday couldn't come quickly enough for Steven Gerrard. Taking on Hamilton looked a routine bit of work on paper but Celtic's surprise defeat to Livingston gifted the Gers the chance to go top of the league. They needed no second invitation as they smashed Accies 5-0 and moved two points clear of their bitter rivals. Jermaine Defoe continued to roll back the years with a hat-trick, taking his tally up to ten for the season. 

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Winners - Stenhousemuir

Stenny did what no other team in League 2 has done so far this season when they came up against high flyers, Cove Rangers. Despite going a goal behind, the Warriors bounced back remarkably with three goals blowing away the Highland side. They managed to hold onto a precious 3-2 win which meant that Paul Hartley's side suffered their first league defeat of the season and Stenny moved into the illustrious promotion play-off spots.



Losers - Celtic

Neil Lennon's men suffered the famous 'European Hangover' once again as they failed to impress at the Tony Macaroni arena. The day began to deteriorate when Ryan Christie, who has been in fine form, saw a straight red for a dangerous challenge and it only got worse from there. A battling performance from the home side were brushed aside 2-0 meaning that the champions dropped to second. Having failed to win at Easter Road the week prior, pressure is on for Celtic to rediscover that scintillating form quickly. 



Losers - Ayr United

Ayr United went into their game against Inverness high on confidence and knowing that a win would take them three points clear at the top of the table. Unfortunately for the Honest Men, they failed to reproduce some of their top performances and fell to a 2-0 defeat at Somerset. A bitterly disappointing result for Sandy Stewart keeping in mind what had happened to their title rivals the night prior. They will definitely feel like it's a massive opportunity missed with United determined not give them too many more gifts during the course of the season.

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Losers - Albion Rovers

The Coatbridge outfit were dragged right into the relegation dogfight this weekend with their defeat to Elgin City at Cliftonhill. The away side came into the game with only one win under their belt but managed to comfortably see past Rovers 3-1 which meant they jumped their opponents in the table. Albion Rovers are now without a win in four and beginning to look over their shoulders only being two points off rock bottom.


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