Nancy takes bow against Hearts, Maswanhise & Rohl in focus

A big week in Scottish sport, which has included World Cup draws in football and rugby union, continues over the weekend with six important Premiership fixtures.

Only goal difference now separates leaders Heart of Midlothian and reigning champions Celtic as they get pride of place when they meet head on in Glasgow on Sunday, but five other intriguing games provide the support act on Saturday.

A new manager at the Celtic Park helm is, of course, just one of the things to look out for.

Whereas Wilfried Nancy at first would have been expecting to take charge of a Celtic team needing refreshed after Brendan Rodgers' departure, the Frenchman's mindset will now need to turn to carrying on the good work of interim manager Michael O'Neill in the five weeks since.

It was a 3-1 defeat by Sunday's opponents, as Hearts enjoyed a sixth straight victory and inflicted a third loss in five for Celtic, that proved to be the final straw for Rodgers.

However, since his resignation the following day and the arrival of fellow Northern Irishman O'Neill as interim boss, there has been a steady change in fortunes.

The eight-point lead Hearts established that day to inspire hopes of a genuine title challenge from Edinburgh has been surrendered - and they risk ending the weekend three points behind champions who would also still have a game in hand.

O'Neill hands over a team who have lost once, away to Midtjylland in the Europa League, in eight outings since that ill-fated trip to the capital, winning their latest five.

Derek McInnes' leaders, meanwhile, have since then won only once in six.

In Hearts' defence, it should be pointed out that they have also only lost one of those.

However, a failure to score in their latest two away games shows where their recent problems lie as they head to Celtic Park, where they have also not found the net in three straight defeats since their last win there, by 2-0 in December 2023.

Five consecutive home wins since losing to Braga in the Europa League should give Nancy confidence that he can get his reign off to a table-topping high.

However, will he do so by continuing with O'Neill's winning formula, or immediately adopt the 3-4-3 formation he favoured leading Columbus Crew to top three places in the Major League Soccer standings in 2023 and 2024 before slipping to 12th this year?

Two goalless draws have slowed Motherwell's momentum just when it looked like Jens Berthel Askou's side were getting the wins to accompany the lavish praise they have been receiving for their style of play under their new manager.

Nevertheless, they remain third top of the table and they will be hoping Tawanda Maswanhise, in particular, can end that barren spell before the Zimbabwe forward heads off to the Africa Cup of Nations.

The 23-year-old, who joined Well from Leicester City last year, has scored eight Premiership goals this season - 36% of his side's overall 22, contributing the highest ratio of any player for any club in the division.

Together with his one assist, that is level with Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland and two more goal involvements than Daizen Maeda, whose 17 goals and nine assists in 2025 is the most in a calendar year by a Celtic player since Leigh Griffiths (25/5) in 2016.

Indeed, Motherwell have only lost one of the nine games this season during which Maswanhise has scored.

He did not score in October's 2-1 win away to Saturday's visitors, Livingston, but he found the net in all three of their wins in the seven games since.

Maswanhise will see the visit of the Premiership's bottom side as a great chance to add to his 12 goals overall this season considering Well have won four in a row against David Martindale's side with an aggregate score of 12-4.

Indeed, while Well have gone five games unbeaten, Livingston are 13 without a win and have not won in 16 visits to Fir Park, losing the latest six.

Following Wednesday's draw away to Dundee United, Danny Rohl was stressing the positives - a greater goal threat and general sense of urgency that led to a point-saving penalty equaliser deep into stoppage time.

However, underneath it all, the German had the startled look of a man who has now fully realised the scale of the problem with the Rangers squad that led to predecessor Russell Martin being sacked.

When the former Ibrox defender's reign came to an end after only 17 games, his side were 11 points behind leaders Hearts.

That gap has been reduced to nine, but only because Hearts have also stumbled, while Celtic have restored the nine-point advantage they enjoyed over their Old Firm rivals at the time of Martin's exit.

Indeed, the deficit has increased from the five points that separated the Glasgow sides when Rodgers was replaced with O'Neill at Celtic Park.

With a now revitalised Celtic hoping for an additional new-manager bounce after Nancy's arrival, Rangers' own new head coach is in even more urgent need of finding a solution to the Ibrox side's struggles.

Rohl's side have won just twice in seven outings, with the latest three all being draws they could easily have turned into defeats given the balance of play.

Now Rangers head to Rugby Park to face a Kilmarnock side who have shown their own green shoots of progress - albeit just two draws after six straight defeats.

The Ayrshire side only have to go back until October 2024 for their last win over Rangers - 1-0 at Rugby Park.

Rangers will, of course, remain favourites considering they have won their three meetings since by an aggregate score of 13-3, including 3-1 in the reverse fixture two months ago.

However, although the visitors rank second highest for goal attempts-per-game in the Premiership this season (15.2, behind Celtic's 16.5), they have the third-lowest conversion rate (8.9%), netting 19 times from 213 attempts, and improving that will be one of Rohl's priorities.

Well, that and shoring up a pretty shaky defence shorn of its two main centre-halves through injury too.