Celtic look to bring some home cheer to fans

Celtic hope to give their fans some festive cheer when they take on St Johnstone at Parkhead in the fourth of five consecutive home games for them in the Scottish Premier League.

Celtic trail fierce rivals Rangers by two points at the top of the table having played a game more and the Glasgow giants will square up to each other on January 2 in the second Old Firm derby of the season.

There has been little for Celtic fans to celebrate at their home ground lately as Neil Lennon's men have drawn their three previous matches against Dundee United, Inverness and Kilmarnock.

But captain Scott Brown, who returned from a 10-week injury layoff in Tuesday's draw with Kilmarnock, believes his side can start winning again and close the gap on the league leaders. "Hopefully, we can start a good run and see where we go from there," the midfielder said. "As long as we are playing well and creating chances, eventually everything will gel.

"We were unlucky in the last few games, we created a lot of chances and we could have scored four or five against Kilmarnock."

Celtic will be without top-scorer Gary Hooper for six weeks after damaging ankle ligaments and he joins Beram Kayal and Shaun Maloney on the sidelines.

Lennon has already said he wants to bring in new players in January but Scotland international Brown believes the current Celtic squad is good enough to wrest the title back from Rangers, without the need for new recruits.

"I think the squad right now is probably the best I've been involved in," Brown said. "We are strong all along the back line and we have a lot of players that haven't played much football that are looking to play. "If we go into January with the same squad, I think we have a good chance."

Rangers will play their first game in two weeks when they travel to Fir Park to take on managerless Motherwell.

Despite Celtic drawing their last three games Rangers captain David Weir doesn't believe his side are pulling away in the race for the title.

"Our last result wasn't too clever either.

I think there is still a lot of work to be done by us," said the veteran, whose side drew 1-1 with Inverness in their previous match. "We dropped points in the last game we played and if you look at the bigger picture you have to give credit to the other teams, Inverness, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Hibs, who have taken points off the Old Firm. "I think everyone on either side of the Old Firm will agree that there is the possibility of losing points in every game."

Walter Smith will be without Nikica Jelavic for the match but could welcome back Maurice Edu and Kyle Lafferty. Elsewhere, on-form Kilmarnock and Hearts clash at Rugby Park. Killie moved up to fifth with a 1-1 draw with Celtic in midweek while Hearts have won six of the past seven games to sit three points off second spot. Hibernian welcome bottom placed Aberdeen to Easter Road.

Former Scotland manager Craig Brown takes charge of the Dons for the first time who have lost their previous seven games.

GLASGOW, Sunday AFP