Celtic beat Falkirk to go level with Hearts at top of the table

Report as Celtic beat Falkirk 3-1 to go level on points with Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership; Rangers are one point behind but take on Motherwell at Ibrox on Sunday; Hearts travel to city rivals Hibernian - live on Sky Sports at 4.30pm; Falkirk remain sixth.

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>Celtic moved level on points with Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts after a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Falkirk at Celtic Park.

>Martin O'Neill's side successfully took advantage of playing before their title rivals by piling the pressure on Rangers and Hearts - who are not in action until Sunday.

>Daizen Maeda and Kieran Tierney provided two excellent first-half finishes as the Bairns were punished for passing up some big opportunities.

>Kyrell Wilson's sublime half-volley in the second period gave the visitors some hope of a comeback, but Maeda then added his second of the evening seven minutes from time to secure three crucial points in the race for the title.

>The Champions have now won four matches in a row and have four games left to defend their Premiership crown.

>Sixth-place Falkirk now face an uphill battle to get among the European spots, having won just one of their last five in all competitions.

>It was always going to a tough afternoon for the visitors after losing three key players in Scott Bain, Filip Lissah and Liam Henderson to injury in last weekend's Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by rivals Dunfermline Athletic.

>However, they actually started the better of the two sides.

>Captain Brad Spencer had an excellent volley from distance pushed wide by Viljami Sinisalo at full stretch before Dylan Tait headed wide following a neat corner routine.

>But as John McGlynn's side have learned in their four matches against Celtic this campaign, you must be ruthless against the champions.

>Maeda, just as he did in Sunday's semi-final win over St Mirren, again displayed his freakish pressing abilities for the opening goal.

>The Japan international pounced on Keelan Adams' heavy touch on the halfway line before catching goalkeeper Nicky Hogarth off his line with a clever first-time finish.

>Tierney then stretched their advantage to two on the stroke of half-time as he thumped a sixth goal of the season in off the crossbar to complete a swift Celtic counter-attack.

>O'Neill's men controlled much of the second period and Yang had a third goal ruled out for offside before Falkirk got themselves back in it with 20 minutes to go.

>Substitute Kyrell Wilson took Leon McCann's cross-field pass on the chest before unleashing an unstoppable half-volley to find the top corner from an acute angle.

>Wilson continued to look a threat as Falkirk went in search of an equaliser, but all hope of a precious point was extinguished with seven minutes remaining when Maeda popped up with his second of the afternoon.

>Last season's 'Player of the Year' looked like his old self and got on the end of Sebastian Tounekti's cutback to roll in his third goal in two matches - after going his previous 17 without scoring.

>Perhaps hitting form at the right time? O'Neill will hope so.

>Four games to go and just one point between the top three. For now…

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>"Daizen Maeda was phenomenal today… I thought he was tremendous today. I'm delighted with the result and delighted with quite a number of performances.

>"There's been a lot of adversity, but the players have shown immense character. We've got flaws like everybody else, but you cannot dispute the character of the team.

>"I will pay attention to what's happening [on Sunday], absolutely, I've always done that.

>"I remember going back years and years ago worrying about what Rangers might do the next day. Hearts have shown great resilience, it's a three-horse race."

>"I'm really pleased with the performance; it was a big test for us today mentally after losing the late goals against Rangers and the penalty shoutout last week against Dunfermline.

>"We gave that as good a go as anyone could have given… there's not a lot in the stats.

>"We tried to play a couple of times and lost the ball, Celtic punished us. Celtic were very much at it and were pressing with great intensity.

>"I'm really proud of them because there was a big question about how we'd respond to that last week. Yeah, we're beat, but the mentality of the team was great."

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