McGeady rewards Celtic's fightback

Rangers finally began to chip away at Celtic's lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League with a 3-0 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox yesterday. The win means that the Hoops are 13 points clear at the top after their 2-2 draw at Hibernian.

Goals from Charlie Adam, Kris Boyd and Dado Prso secured a third consecutive SPL win to allow Rangers to reclaim second spot on goal difference from Aberdeen, while Celtic fought back from two goals down to snatch a late point in a thrilling draw with Hibs.

Rangers took the lead against Kilmarnock in the 22nd minute with Adam firing a shot into the top left from 16 yards before Kris Boyd hooked in the second five minutes later. The Croatian striker Dado Prso added a third in the 57th minute.

At Easter Road, meanwhile, the Irishman Ivan Sproule crashed a ferocious half-volley into the top right from 12 yards to put Hibs ahead after 11 minutes, with Celtic struggling to contain them in a fast-flowing half. Then the Hibs captain, Kevin Thomson, ended an impressive run by stabbing the ball through Artur Boruc's legs to make it 2-0 just after the hour. The Celtic substitute Evander Sno hit back with a low drive from the edge of the area following a fine run and cut-back by Kenny Miller after 70 minutes on the left, and another Celtic sub, Aiden McGeady, hit the equaliser five minutes later into the bottom left-hand corner.

Thomson accused Neil Lennon of over-reacting to an incident involving Scott Brown. The Hoops captain was on a yellow card when he and Brown squared up in the second half. The Scotland international moved his head towards Lennon, who put his hands to his face before falling to the ground.

The referee, Mike McCurry, gave a yellow card to the Hibs player, and Thomson said: "I am always going to defend my buddy. He got caught up a little bit and I had a quiet word in his ear."

Dundee United leapfrogged St Mirren into ninth place with a 1-0 win at Tannadice.