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Scottish Premiership<br />

Celtic ease past Ross County but Rangers draw<br />

before Old Firm meeting<br />

• Champions win 2-0 at Celtic Park to build 16-point lead over Rangers<br />

• Inverness stay bottom with 2-1 home defeat by Motherwell<br />

Stuart Armstrong, right, celebrates scoring Celtic’s second goal against Ross County with Leigh<br />

Griffiths. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA<br />

<strong>Guardian</strong> sport<br />

Wednesday 28 December <strong>2016</strong> 22.14 GMT Last modified on Thursday <strong>29</strong> December <strong>2016</strong><br />

00.35 GMT<br />

Celtic maintained their cruise towards a 48th top-flight title with a 2-0 defeat of Ross County while<br />

Rangers, who will host the Old Firm derby on New Year’s Eve, struggled to break down St<br />

Johnstone in a 1-1 draw.<br />

Inverness stayed bottom of the table after a 2-1 defeat by Motherwell while Partick Thistle beat<br />

Dundee 2-0.<br />

Erik Sviatchenko opened the scoring at Celtic Park seven minutes before half-time with a long-range<br />

effort, the centre-half’s first goal of the season, that Scott Fox in the Ross County goal should have<br />

dealt with.<br />

Stuart Armstrong doubled the lead just before the interval with his eighth goal of the season after a<br />

twisting burst into the penalty area.<br />

<strong>The</strong> champions took their foot off the pedal in the second half with the Rangers game in three days’<br />

time. Martin Woods almost grabbed one back for the visitors close to full-time but Craig Gordon<br />

saved well and then denied Andrew Davies.<br />

Moussa Dembélé came on after the hour for Leigh Griffiths and the big question before the 31

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