Lennon loses patience at Hearts

SPL round-up:Goals by Ian Black and David Templeton gave Hearts a 2-0 victory over 10-man Celtic in a turbulent Scottish Premier League encounter at Tynecastle which saw Hoops manager Neil Lennon sent to the stand.

Black gave the home side the lead with a deflected drive in the 28th minute and in the 56th minute he was crunched in a tackle by Joe Ledley to earn the Hoops midfielder a red card. Two minutes later the Gorgie men scored a breakaway second through Templeton, but there was much more drama to come.

After a penalty claim was ignored by referee Craig Thomson, when Jambos substitute Ryan Stevenson, on for Black, looked like he might have used an arm in the box, the raging Lennon was dismissed from the dugout after aggressively complaining to fourth official Steven McLean and linesman Graham Chambers.

The incident is sure to spark more controversy and debate in light of the Irishman’s recent spat with the Scottish Football Association and referee Dougie McDonald after the official rescinded a penalty award at Dundee United and then lied to Lennon about how he had come to the decision.

Rangers, meanwhile, suffered their first league defeat of the season, as Colin Calderwood celebrated his first win as manager of Hibernian. The Easter Road side headed into the clash at Ibrox joint-bottom of the table and with few backing them to cause an upset but they stunned their hosts with a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Liam Miller, John Rankin and Francis Dickoh.

The victory took Hibs to eighth in the SPL, while Rangers were able to retain their single-point advantage over Celtic.

Nick Blackman struck a first-half hat-trick to consolidate Motherwell’s place in the top three and pile on more misery for St Johnstone.

The on-loan Blackburn striker finished off two clinical attacks down Motherwell’s right wing before converting from close range following Stevie Hammell’s injury-time free-kick as Motherwell won 4-0.

Kilmarnock gave their home support a powerful demonstration of the kind of goalscoring form they have been showing on their travels as they outplayed Hamilton to win 3-0 at Rugby Park.

The prolific Ayrshire outfit had claimed consecutive 3-0 away victories at both Hearts and St Johnstone, but St Mirren were the only team they had previously beaten at home in the Premier League this term back on September 11th.

That all changed tonight as, after Ben Gordon had given them a 34th-minute lead with his first goal for the club, the home side upped a gear in the second-half to drive home their superiority and take the game away from Hamilton.

Two clinical strikes from Michael Higdon saw St Mirren move off the foot of the table with a 2-1 win at Dundee United, their first on the road this season. Higdon struck after 41 and 65 minutes as Saints claimed their first points away from home this term to deny Dundee a third straight success.

Prince Buaben powered in an 86th-minute free-kick to set up a tense finale, but United suffered a third home loss of the campaign.