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Keane’s double puts Celtic back on track

Tony Mowbray’s team are still massive outsiders in the race for the Scottish Premier League crown, but on-loan Tottenham forward Keane at least reduced the gap from leaders Rangers to 10 points.

A week after the controversial 1-0 defeat at Rangers that left the Hoops in despair, Mowbray made four changes to his side at the Falkirk Stadium as Marc Crosas replaced suspended midfielder Scott Brown, while Danish striker Morten Rasmussen made his first league start in place of Marc-Antoine Fortune.

Celtic, who on Friday denied reports that they had voiced concerns to the SPL about the state of Falkirk’s pitch, went into the game 13 points behind Rangers at the top of the table.

Falkirk threatened first when striker Enoch Showunmi headed Scott Arfield’s cross over the bar, then Vitor Lima fired wide from the edge of the area as the hosts tried to embarrass Mowbray’s men.

It was Keane who sparked Celtic into life. He was close to opening the scoring when he beat the home side’s offside trap to race on to Andreas Hinkel’s through-ball ansd saw his goalbound shot was pushed away by Robert Olejnik.

Olejnik made a great save from Keane after the Republic of Ireland striker fired in a powerful shot from the edge of the area.

But Keane finally found a way past the Falkirk keeper in the 34^th minute when he took Rasmussen’s pass and steered his low shot past Olejnik.

Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc had to make a fine save to keep out Ryan Flynn’s close-range effort and Showunmi missed a sitter as he shot wide with the goal at his mercy before half-time.

Georgios Samaras wasted a chance to increase Celtic’s lead when he flashed a shot wide from a good psoition.

The dangerous Showunmi could have made him pay when he burst clear into the visitors’ penalty area but the forward was crowded out.

Falkirk continued to press hard for much of the second half. Showunmi missed another decent chance when he headed over the crossbar from six yards and Boruc then produced a fine save from Arfield’s 20-yard volley.

But Keane sealed the points in the 79^th minute when a quick Crosas free-kick allowed him to surge away from the Bairns defence and shoot past Olejnik.