Samaras sends Celtic top

Celtic 1 Aberdeen 0:  Georgios Samaras fired Celtic to the top of the Scottish Premier League as Gordon Strachan's side jumped above Rangers for the first time since January.

The Greek striker had a mostly dreadful game but his goal made the difference at Parkhead as both teams served up a poor match which failed to hit the heights of Wednesday's exhilarating Old Firm clash.

Regardless of the spectacle, the win allowed Celtic to move two points clear at the summit, however Rangers — in Scottish Cup semi-final action tomorrow — now have three games in hand.

Gary Caldwell's involvement in the fracas at the end of the Old Firm clash earned him a one-match ban and allowed Bobo Balde to make his first Celtic appearance since December.

Samaras had the ball in the back of the net for Celtic early on but the offside flag was correctly raised.

Ireland's Aiden McGeady then delivered a teasing cross to Balde at the back post but the big defender was denied a goalscoring comeback when he somehow managed to scoop over from four yards.

McGeady, who could land the SPFA Player of the Year award at a dinner in Glasgow tomorrow night, was causing plenty of problems on the left and he had a go at goal himself with a smart shot which was held comfortably by Langfield.

Samaras should have broken the deadlock with half-time looming when he pounced on a decent ball from Shunsuke Nakamura and tried to bury an angled drive but the effort was blasted out of play by Barry Nicholson.

Andreas Hinkel was replaced by Paul Caddis at the break and the young full-back immediately burst down the flank before setting up Samaras, who mis-hit the shot and squandered another decent opportunity.

Samaras had been far from impressive but eventually made a worthwhile contribution by winning a free-kick in front of the corner flag, before throwing himself in front of Robson's free-kick and nodding home from eight yards.

Only a timely intervention from birthday boy Caddis prevented Aberdeen from restoring parity with 13 minutes to go.

Samaras and Diamond both had the ball in the net in the latter stages but the  game had been stopped for fouls beforehand on both occasions as the match ended with a slender win for the defending SPL champions.