Larsson in mood

Celtic's 5-0 thrashing of Dunfermline at Parkhead at least helped to undermine the theory that boardroom politics can affect players. Only a day after the Celtic directors rejected the proposed takeover of the club by the Kenny Dalglish-Jim Kerr-fronted consortium, Henrik Larsson demonstrated the team's blissful indifference to the controversy.

The Swedish forward, already ahead of the field in the race to be Player of the Year, not only scored the first two goals, but also had a hand in the other three, a double from Lubomir Moravcik and one from Johan Mjallby, his first since arriving from AIK Stockholm four weeks ago.

Moravcik, capped a total of 74 times for Czechoslovakia and Slovakia before and after partition, commented that Larsson is the best with whom he has played. "Henrik does everything quicker than anyone else. I have never had the chance to play with a player of his quality before."

The result was a continuation of Celtic's impressive home form in a season which has yielded 29 goals from 10 league games at Parkhead. It is their poor record on the road, however, which has them seven points behind Rangers, a lead which was maintained by the Ibrox side's 3-2 victory at Hearts.

Neil McCann's debut for Rangers, having signed from Hearts only three days earlier, was delayed until 10 minutes from the end, when he came on as a substitute for the injured Ian Ferguson. By then his new team-mates had secured the points with a telling spurt in the first 20 minutes of the second half, when Rod Wallace gave them a 2-1 lead and Stephane Guivarc'h completed his double.

Hearts had led through Gary Locke after two minutes but lost the equaliser to Guivarc'h 15 minutes later. Jim Hamilton completed the scoring. It could prove significant, for Rangers, who had already lost at Tynecastle, along with the other two of the top three, Kilmarnock and Celtic.

Goals from Paul Wright and Ian Durrant (penalty) last night in a 20 defeat of Dunddee United kept Kilmarnock within touch of Rangers. They are three points behind the Glasgow club, having played a game more.

Paul Hegarty, the caretaker-manager at Aberdeen, strengthened his claim for the post with a 2-1 win at Dundee.