Luke McCowan scored on his first start for Celtic as the champions went back to the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 3-0 win at Motherwell.

Lennon Miller had twice hit the frame of the goal for the hosts before McCowan nicked the ball past Kofi Balmer and drilled it into the bottom corner from 18 yards to open the scoring in the 27th minute.

Alistair Johnston headed Celtic two up 11 minutes into the second half and they went on to enjoy their most comfortable win at Fir Park under Brendan Rodgers after Adam Idah netted late on.

Motherwell centre-back Liam Gordon received a VAR-assisted red card in stoppage time to round off their misery.

Rangers put their fans through the wringer again before running out 2-1 winners against a spirited St Mirren side at Ibrox.

After recovering from last week’s defeat at Kilmarnock with a convincing 4-0 Europa League win over the Romanian side FCSB in Govan on Thursday, Philippe Clement’s side, with captain James Tavernier starting on the bench, could not find their rhythm despite taking a 13th-minute lead through Mohamed Diomande.

That lead was deservedly cancelled out by Alex Gogic’s header in the 26th minute but as anxiety and frustration regularly cascaded down from the stands Vaclav Cerny, who scored a double against FCSB, came to the rescue in the 69th minute when he popped up with the winner.

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The Light Blues remain in third place, six points behind Celtic and Aberdeen, and now prepare for the trip to Pittodrie on Wednesday still without a permanent chairman, chief executive and director of football and with unhappy supporters again demonstrating their discontent with banners.

Neil Critchley praised James Wilson’s poacher’s instinct after the 17-year-old Hearts striker stepped off the bench to score a late Edinburgh derby equaliser at Hibernian. The academy graduate latched on to a long throw and netted from close range in the 87th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw after Mykola Kuharevich’s 65th-minute opener for Hibs.

Wilson has made just six sub appearances for Hearts and this was his second goal in consecutive games under Critchley, after his first for the club against St Mirren last weekend. “Fantastic, but that’s him, he’s a goalscorer, a goal poacher,” said the Hearts manager. “That’s what goalscorers do. They just arrive in the right position at the right time, and they find a way of hitting the back of the net.”

David Gray felt their lapse for Wilson’s goal undermined an otherwise encouraging performance. “I don’t think anybody could deny that we deserved to win the game on chances created,” said the Hibs manager. “For 99% of the game, I thought we were excellent defensively, but we’ve dropped two points again, in my opinion.”

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