Gretna 0 Celtic 3CELTIC MANAGER Gordon Strachan refused to get involved in a war of words with Rangers chief executive Martin Bain on the subject of an extended season - but backed up his own chief executive Peter Lawwell's view that the Ibrox club should not be given more time to complete their packed fixture list.

Goals by Scott McDonald, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras gave the Premier League champions a 3-0 win over Gretna at Almondvale which took Celtic to within three points of leaders Rangers ahead of the trip to Ibrox next week, a crunch game that had led to increased tensions between the two clubs over the weekend.

Rangers beat Hibernian 2-1 on Saturday with goals from Jean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo. French striker Darcheville struck the opening goal five minutes before half-time and Spanish striker Novo rifled home the second after 79 minutes before Hibernian grabbed a consolation through Dean Shiels in the last minute.

On Rangers' packed fixture list Strachan did point to the 1982-83 season when Aberdeen won the European Cup Winners Cup and the Scottish Cup, as evidence that a spate of games in quick succession need not affect any potential success.

He said: "In 1983 at Aberdeen, Willie Miller and Alex McLeish played about 73 games and I don't think we extended the league.

"We got a good season out of it so we would advocate just getting on with it."

GRETNA:Fleming, Naughton, Hall, Meynell, Skelton, McGill (Griffiths 82), Murray, Osman, Baldacchino, Deverdics (Barr 66), Wilkinson (Makinwa 72). Subs Not Used:Krysiak, Hogg, Schultz-Eklund, Taylor. Booked:Osman, Skelton.

CELTIC:Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor, Nakamura, Scott Brown (Hartley 72), Robson (Sno 80), McGeady, McDonald (Samaras 63), Vennegoor of Hesselink. Subs Not Used:Mark Brown, Riordan, O'Dea, Killen. Booked: Scott Brown. Goals:McDonald 42, Vennegoor of Hesselink 70, Samaras 88.

Referee: C Thomson(Scotland).