Graeme Souness believes Celtic reeling from 'almighty blow' and weekend was GREAT for Rangers despite Motherwell slip

Graeme Souness reckons Celtic suffered an 'almighty blow' at the weekend after failing to capitalise on Rangers' slip.

Philippe Clement and his troops were on the end of a rare stumble under the Belgian as Motherwell left Ibrox with all three points after pulling off a big shock by dumping the league leaders 2-1 on their own turf. The result handed Brendan Rodgers and his troops the perfect pre-match boost ahead of their trip to the capital to face Hearts on Sunday in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

But it was an afternoon of VAR drama and a contest which had the lot including two penalties, two offside goals, a red card and two strikes that counted - and not the way the Hoops would have liked them to. Rodgers slammed the officials post match insisting they had cost his side in Gorgie after flashpoints that ended with Yang sent off early on following a VAR review for a high boot on Alex Cochrane and a Tomoki Iwata handball that allowed Jorge Grant to fire beyond Joe Hart from 12 yards. Lawrence Shankland added a second for the capital outfit while Zander Clark also kept out an Adam Idah penalty.

Souness has suffered a similar fate throughout his playing and managerial career that Rangers did against Motherwell insisting it can happen - but it is the result of fellow title chases and city rivals Celtic that he reckons is a huge blow to their hopes with the gap between the duo remaining at two points - as it did going into the weekend of action.

Souness said: "They lost at the weekend but that can happen. It happened to me many times in my managerial and playing career. You've dominated, had the best chances but lose the game. That can happen. But this weekend was still a great weekend for Rangers simply because Celtic