Hartley refuses to throw in the towel

Celtic midfielder Paul Hartley insists the Hoops are ready to pile the pressure on Rangers by cutting their lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League to one point when they meet at Parkhead on Wednesday.

The champions trounced Motherwell 4-1 at Fir Park to get their title aspirations back on track, eight days after the Steelmen seemed to have derailed them with a shock 1-0 win at Celtic Park.

Looking forward to the crunch Old Firm game on Wednesday, Hartley said: "We will put pressure on them. It us up to us to force the issue and try and win the game."

He added: "Old Firm games are always difficult. We played well in the last one and didn't get the result. Hopefully we can get the right result on Wednesday.

"We had to win this game against Motherwell and we managed to do that. The spirit has always been good, we have just not been getting results.

"Motherwell went up the park once last week and managed to score. We had numerous chances but we managed to take those chances.

"Sometimes it's just about putting the ball in to the net and we did that. The key was the delivery in to the box and that might be the key to Wednesday night."

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink grabbed a double as the Hoops reduced the deficit between them and SPL leaders Rangers to four points, although the Ibrox side have two games in hand.

Stephen McManus and Scott McDonald also notched for the visitors with Motherwell's consolation strike coming when McManus helped a Ross McCormack shot into his own net.