Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald both found the net as Celtic were made to work hard to leapfrog Rangers to the top of the SPL table after a 2-1 win against Hamilton.

Maloney’s acrobatic effort after 15 minutes sent Tony Mowbray’s troops on their way before Australian McDonald looked to have sealed after three points on the half hour mark.

However Celtic took their foot off the gas after the restart and faced a nervous final few minutes after Mickael Antoine-Curier pulled one back for Hamilton in the 83rd minute.

Celtic did hold on to move back to top spot by a single point after Rangers were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Hibernian.

After an opening 15 minutes to forget Celtic defender Andreas Hinkel sparked the match into life crossing from the right for Maloney to spectacularly volley home from six-yards.

Antoine-Curier replied with a 30-yard drive which was saved before McDonald latched onto a scuffed pass from Georgios Samaras and burst through to double the advantage.

Hamilton defender Richard Hastings – like Antoine-Curier – could have hit back almost immediately but failed before team-mate Marco Paixao’s saw his curling free-kick evade everyone.

The hosts piled on the pressure after the break and were rewarded with seven minutes remaining when Antoine-Curier latched onto James McArthur’s effort – but it was too little, too late.

SFL

Meanwhle in the SFL, Dundee moved to the head of Scottish Division One after a hard-fought 2-1 victory over fellow high-flyers Raith.

Colin McMenamin’s third league goal of the campaign got the home side off to an ideal start on 15 minutes but Darren Smith was quick to restore parity for Raith.

However Gary Mackenzie struck ten minutes before the break to ensure that Dundee maintained their unbeaten home record and stretched their undefeated run to five games.

Previous table-toppers Ross County were left to rue playing most of the second half with ten men after twice being pegged back in a 2-2 draw by Partick.

Inverness continued their impressive away form with a 5-1 win at Ayr, Queen of the South saw of winless Airdrie 3-0 and Dunfermline moved clear of the relegation zone beating Morton 3-1.

Meanwhile in Scottish Division Two Clyde came within two minutes of shocking Stirling at Forthbank only for Liam Corr to salvage a 1-1 draw for the leaders.

That draw was enough to lift Clyde off the bottom after Stenhousemuir went down 2-1 away to East Fife.

And elsewhere Cowdenbeath and Brechin and Peterhead and Alloa drew 0-0 respectively while Dumbartion beat Arbroath 1-0.