Hilfe » keeping our foot on the gas pedal

Celtic stretched their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to eight points with a 2-1 victory over spirited Motherwell at Fir Park. Leigh Griffiths atoned for a penalty miss by taking his tally to 37 goals for the season as he netted either side of a Scott McDonald strike in a thrilling encounter.Motherwell were looking for a point to secure a top-six finish and they could have made more of an early opportunity when Marvin Johnson raced towards the corner of the 18-yard box and slipped a pass inside to Chris Cadden, but his first-time shot was weak and easily saved by Craig Gordon. Celtic responded when Stefan Johansen laid a pass out to Mikael Lustig and his deep cross was headed towards the far corner by Griffiths where the ball dropped on to the top of the net with Connor Ripley struggling to deal with the danger.Ripley then blocked a shot from Patrick Roberts with his foot at the near post and three minutes later the Motherwell keeper pushed away Nir Bittons dipping effort from 25 yards. Marvin Johnson trips Celtic winger Patrick Roberts to concede a penalty The visitors continued to probe and Griffiths tested Ripley from a similar distance with a swerving shot which the stopper could only parry, but there were no takers for the rebound.Celtic squandered a great chance to open the scoring on 26 minutes when Johnson tripped Roberts as he weaved into the box, but Griffiths dragged the resulting penalty wide of the post seconds later.And Ripley again thwarted Griffiths with a superb one-handed block at his near post when the striker ran on to Bittons forward pass as Celtic broke swiftly on a counter-attack.At the other end McDonald took advantage of a slip by Charlie Mulgrew and slipped a pass to Johnson on the overlap but Scott Brown got across to block his low delivery inside the six-yard box.Ripley again came to Motherwells rescue when he blocked a sweeping drive from Colin Kazim-Richards on the six-yard line after Griffiths dummied a cutback from Lustig. Motherwell players celebrate Scott McDonalds equaliser The Well goalkeeper then clawed away a dipping net-bound shot from Kieran Tierney and moments later he saved another swerving drive from Roberts as Celtic laid siege around the penalty area.But the Hoops finally made the breakthrough a minute before the interval when Johansen threaded a pass to Tierney and his low centre was swept home by Griffiths from 10 yards, despite the best efforts of Ripley. Luke Shanley and Neil McCann analyse Celtics win over Motherwell in the SPFL Premiership. Motherwell had the ball in the net nine minutes after the break when Johnson and Louis Moult combined on the left side of the penalty area and the latter centred for McDonald to tap home, but the striker had strayed offside.A minute later Ripley turned a fierce drive from Roberts round his near post as the winger danced past Steven Hammell, and the keeper denied the same player as he got down the push away another powerful shot.But McDonald equalised after an hour when Tierney misjudged a forward pass, allowing Moult to get goalside in the box and lay the ball back from the goal-line for the former Celtic striker to blast into the far corner. Leigh Griffiths scores his first goal in Celtics 2-1 win Celtic restored their lead 15 minutes from time when Tierney hooked a cross into the box from the left as Motherwell struggled to clear their lines and Griffiths sent a snap-shot which squirmed through Ripleys grasp over the line.Ripley denied Griffiths once more at his near post with three minutes remaining when the striker nicked the ball off Kieran Kennedy and raced into the box. First team coach John Kennedy gives thoughts after Celtic beat Motherwell in the SPL. The league leaders saw the match out though and are now seven points away from becoming Champions of Scotland for the fifth successive season. Goose Gossage Rangers Jersey . Riethers apparent stamp on Manchester United midfielder Adnan Januzaj during Saturdays Premier League match at Craven Cottage was missed by the match officials. A three-man panel of former referees reviewed the incident and all agreed that it was a sending-off offence. Texas Rangers Gear . Especially after he got ejected. "How many innings was that?" he wondered. https://www.cheaprangersbaseball.com/. -- The Chicago Bears agreed Tuesday to a one-year contract with defensive lineman Israel Idonije and are bringing him back for a second stint. Yu Darvish Rangers Jersey . Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon; a brief, poor outing that served to highlight two trends that have developed this season. Jose Leclerc Rangers Jersey . In this space, I will be writing new and unique pieces about the team that you wont be able to find anywhere else. So naturally, in an attempt to come up with a fresh topic about the Ottawa Senators, I am going to start with a piece about their goaltending.ORLANDO, Fla. -- During the Magics recent struggles one of the few constants has been the offence provided by Arron Afflalo. The veteran provided another reminder of why hes so indispensable for a young team trying to find itself. Afflalo scored 23 points to lead five Orlando players in double-figures and the Magic snapped a three-game losing streak with a 109-92 win over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Orlando led the Pistons by as many as 22 points and cruised in the fourth quarter. Afflalo said the victory was one of the most complete efforts the Magic have posted in recent memory. "Its good to get a win at home for once," said Afflalo, who has scored at least 20 points in five straight outings. "I dont think weve won here this month. It was pretty impressive defensively. I thought the bigs did a great job trying to fight their bigs all night rebounding. I thought we shared the ball throughout the game, made the right play. "When we play like that I think were pretty good." The Magics leading scorer this season, Afflalo played eight minutes of the third quarter after lightly turning his left ankle. But after coming out of the game briefly, he was able to finish the period -- scoring six points -- before resting in the fourth. "The ankle, its one of those things where if you can fight through it, you go ahead and play," he said. The victory halted a five-game home losing streak for the Magic, who hadnt won at the Amway Center since the day before Thanksgiving. Nik Vucevic added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and rookie Victor Oladipo finished with 16 points and a career-high 11 assists. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn thought Fridays effort was sparked by what he called a surprisingly "intense" practice for this time of year. "That has to be our signature -- we have to come to work," he said. "I always tell them I dont know what results thats going to lead to wins and losses-wise, but you can look yourself in the mirror and appreciate what you do for a living, and your teammates appreciate you when you come to work." Brandon Jennings had 21 points and Will Bynum added 18 for the Pistons, who had a streak of three consecutive road victories ended.dddddddddddd "From the start of the game, we just couldnt get anything going. We got a couple stops in the third quarter, but we couldnt score, and it just kept going downhill from there," Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks said. "We couldnt get anything going offensively, they pushed the ball down our throat defensively, and then we didnt make any shots." The Pistons, who claimed eight of their 14 wins on the road, never found a flow on offence. They shot 41 per cent for the game, and were outscored in the paint 58-48. "We had no sense of urgency and we didnt muster energy at all tonight," Jennings said. "Its got to be a collective unit to try to get it back together, but we didnt have it tonight." In some of their recent losses Orlando had started fast, only to fall apart late in the games. The Magic jumped out to another early lead, but this time were able to sustain it with a variety of scoring bursts that kept the Pistons playing catch up for most of the night. Orlando hovered over 50 per cent shooting throughout and carried a 19-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Magic carved out their early advantage shooting 56 per cent in the opening 24 minutes to take a 55-48 lead into halftime. Glen Davis had eight points in less than five minutes and then yielded to Afflalo, who finished the half with 12 points. Oladipo and Tobias Harris each added 10 points. Afflalo said theres no secret to what it will take for the Magic to have another "good night" like Friday. "Just get after it, man. Theres no mystery," he said. "We know what we need to do -- same focus, same effort. It starts with our preparation in shootaround, our intensity, attention to detail. And keeping our foot on the gas pedal." NOTES: The Magic improved to 5-6 when they score 100 or more points. ... Pistons G Chauncey Billups opted to continue his recent program of resting his tendinitis-affected knee on the first game of back-to-backs. Cheeks said Billups is expected to play when Detroit visits Washington on Saturday. ' ' '