McDonald looked in fine form early on when he shrugged off Killie defender Tim Clancy but shot wide from 16 yards out. Just before half time though McDonald opened the scoring when he again turned Tim Clancy in the penalty area and fired into the corner of the net.

Ten minutes later however Danny Invincibile equalised for Kilmarnock when a corner found him at the back post and he volleyed past the keeper.

Kilmarnock pressed forward late in the game in search of a winner but in the 81st minute Scott McDonald picked up the ball at the edge of the box, sent the defenders in the wrong direction and toe poked the ball home for the Hoops, winning the match 2 -1.

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan said after the game: "Scott's first goal was terrific as well as his second so I was pleased with him."

Even Kilmarnock boss Jim Jefferies was moved to praise the quality of the late winner from the Australia international.

He said: "I was a bit disappointed at the first goal.

"I thought he should have been closed down, you can't give a striker of that quality that time and the centre halves should have been on to him.

"But at least Celtic had to produce a real quality goal to beat him.

"McDonald's clever, he's skilful and he beat about three men because they were all expecting him to shoot.

"I thought it was a terrific goal and he has pulled them out of it because up until then we were dealing with their corners and free-kicks extremely well.

In the English Premier League Mark Schwarzer clung onto a clean sheet for Fulham until injury time against Richard Garcia's Hull.

Hull put the early pressure on Schwarzer's goal but then Fulham dominated the game until the last 15 minutes. Richard Garcia came off the bench in the 89th minute for Hull with the game still at 0-0 and two minutes later he combined with Alberto Manucho who scored the winner for Hull 1-0.

Vinnie Grella started the match for Blackburn against Tim Cahill's Everton but came off at half time. Blackburn brought on attack minded Tugay Kerimoglu in search of the goal that would lift Blackburn out of the relegation zone.

Despite putting the pressure on in the second half however Blackburn couldn't score. Everton had a late flurry and Tim Cahill shot a half volley but it went straight down the keepers throat and the match finished 0-0.

Lucas Neill played the full shift of West Ham's 1-0 win over Wigan but he pushed his luck with the referee earning a booking in the second half of a game where both sides finished with ten men. Mark Viduka was left out of the Newcastle squad that lost 2-1 to Manchester United.

On Tuesday night in the English Championship Reading's goalkeeper Adam Federici Federici made a good save at the death to deny opposing keeper Lee Grant an equaliser in Reading's 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

In League One Gareth Edds played the full shift for Tranmere in their 2-1 loss to Hartlepool while Socceroo Chris Coyne came off the bench for the last 35 mins for Colchester's 2-2 draw with Huddersfield.

Further down in League Two Aaron Downes took a long throw in and poked the ball home to score an early opener for Chesterfield's 2-1 win over Bury and in the Scottish First Division Erik Paartalu scored with a 30 yard strike in Greenock Morton's 4-2 win over Clyde.