MOTHERWELL // Georgios Samaras blamed the international break after Celtic survived a minor scare to beat Motherwell 4-2 in their Scottish Premier League clash at Fir Park. The champions raced in to a four-goal half-time lead through a double from man-of-the-match Samaras and strikes from Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald. Two goals in a two-minute spell after the break from John Sutton and David Clarkson gave some hope to the home side but in the end, Celtic's impressive first-half performance was enough to see them through.
"The first 55 minutes, we played really good football, really great football," Samaras said. "But after that, I think our team was a little bit tired. "A lot of players had a game in the middle of the week with their national teams and we lost our focus. "Motherwell scored twice and just after that we were in a panic." Three points at a difficult venue was the perfect response to Celtic's Old Firm derby defeat two weeks ago and Samaras fired a warning to Rangers.
"We'll see at the end of the season who's going to take the title," he said. "We lost the battle against Rangers but we did not lose the war." A Kris Boyd double propelled Rangers clear at the top of the table - but they were made to work hard in their 2-1 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox. The match may have been an unlikely top-of-the-table clash but Jim Jefferies' men had taken an early lead through Frazer Wright before Boyd led a second-half turnaround for the Gers.
* PA Sport
