McLeish: Given close to comeback

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish believes that goalkeeper Shay Given is close to being fully fit again after a month on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

The Republic of Ireland international could even be available for selection for the Premier League clash against Everton on 14 January.

"Shay is not far away and feels he could be ready pretty soon," McLeish said. "He was champing at the bit over the festive period because he wanted to be involved. He could have a chance of being ready for the Everton game."

Given has been in fine form since his summer move from Manchester City on a five-year contract. USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan has deputised for the 35-year-old in his absence.

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Celtic close gap as St Mirren stun Rangers

Celtic survived a late scare to hand their fans an early Christmas present in the shape of a 2-1 win over Kilmarnock which cut their deficit to leaders Rangers to just one point on Saturday.

Celtic host Rangers at Parkhead on Wednesday, but the champions' hopes of striding confidently into the derby clash suffered a blow with a shock 2-1 defeat away to St Mirren.

Goals in either half from Georgios Samaras had Celtic seemingly cruising to victory before a late strike from substitute Danny Racchi put the home fans on edge for the closing minutes.

It was Celtic's eighth win in a row, and their bid for a ninth will be boosted by the news that Rangers pair Lee McCulloch and Dorin Goian -- both of whom were sent off against St Mirren -- will be suspended from Wednesday's meeting.

"The day couldn't have gone better for us really," Celtic manager Neil Lennon said. "It was a good performance, a good three points and we've closed the gap but it's only one day and there is a lot of football to go."

Kilmarnock began brightly with Gary Harkins' shot being snuffed out by Charlie Mulgrew.

Celtic winger James Forrest wasn't far away with a fierce strike from 25 yards before Dean Shiels dragged his shot wide at the other end after good build-up play from Heffernan.

Gary Hooper missed a golden chance to give Celtic the lead when he flicked the ball over the bar from close range after keeper Cammy Bell had spilled Forrest's initial shot.

Scott Brown made some room for himself on the edge of the Killie box but sent his low drive straight to Bell before Hooper flicked Mulgrew's free-kick on to the roof of the net.

Samaras made the breakthrough two minutes into first-half stoppage time. Persistent work from Cha Du-Ri saw the South Korean whip the ball across from the right and Samaras out-jumped Mohamadou Sissoko to send a downward header past Bell.

No sooner had news filtered through of Rangers' defeat to St Mirren than the Hoops doubled their advantage through Samaras in the 53rd minute.

Hooper picked him out and Sissoko's slip allowed the Greek room at the edge of the box to rifle his shot low under Bell.

Kilmarnock pulled one back in the 87th minute when substitute Raachi crafted a chance out of nothing and sent a superb low strike under Fraser Forster to set up a nervy finish.

Despite the defeat, Killie manager Kenny Shiels felt there had been nothing between the two sides.

"I feel it was an even match and overall a draw would've been a fair result," he said. "We matched them for long periods and our organisation was good in the first-half."

Rangers had got off to a great start when Lee Wallace gave the visitors an 11th-minute lead in Paisley with his first goal for the club.

However things went from bad to worse for Ally McCoist's side, who went in at the half-time interval 2-1 down after losing Lee McCulloch to a red card in the 24th minute for violent conduct.

Aaron Mooy equalised for the Buddies in the 44th minute, with Paul McGowan giving the hosts a deserved lead two minutes into first-half injury time.

Rangers' late push for an equaliser came apart when Dorin Goian was sent off for his second bookable offence of the game with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Elsewhere, Hearts put their financial woes to one side to defeat Motherwell 2-0, Inverness defeated Aberdeen 2-1, St Johnstone thrashed bottom club Dunfermline 3-0 and Dundee United came from behind to win 3-1 against Hibernian.

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Wolfsburg close in on Jiracek

German side Wolfsburg are close to signing Czech Republic midfielder Petr Jiracek from Viktoria Plzen, it was confirmed today.

"I can confirm that Petr today successfully underwent a medical," the player's agent Dalibor Lacina told the CTK news agency.

"Petr has already decided to accept Wolfsburg's offer but the transfer is not yet finalised. The clubs have to find an agreement."

The 25-year-old joined Plzen in 2008 and helped them to their first domestic championship last season. He was also instrumental in helping the Czech Republic qualify for the UEFA EURO 2012 finals.

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Weeks close to getting activated from 15-day DL

ST. LOUIS -- The Milwaukee Brewers plan to activate Rickie Weeks from the 15-day disabled list soon to allow him time to ease his way back.

There's been no discussion yet how much playing time Weeks would need to get ready for the post-season. The Brewers led the NL Central by 10 1-2 games prior to Tuesday night's game against the second-place Cardinals.

Weeks has been out with a severely sprained left ankle since July 27. Manager Ron Roenicke said Weeks has looked good running in the outfield the last few days, but has yet to run the bases.

"Yesterday was a real good day for him, I could see the improvements out there," Roenicke said. "He didn't have that little pause, that little hesitation that he's had."

Weeks took ground balls at second base before Tuesday night's game at St. Louis. Jerry Hairston, acquired from the Nationals on the trade deadline, has made 17 starts at second base.

"I've seen him for a lot of years and always liked the way he played," Roenicke said. "He was a tough out. I kind of thought what he was going to be and he is, he's a real nice player."

Weeks is batting .272 with 19 homers and 43 RBIs in 104 games. Hairston was batting .275 with four homers and 28 RBIs in 30 games overall with Milwaukee.

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Crosby feeling better, but not close to being cleared for contact

Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins addressed the media regarding the star centre's concussion symptoms for the first time this off-season, confirming that while he is on the path to full recovery but is not yet ready to rejoin his team in full practice.

While there is no timetable currently set for his return, Crosby said that it is likely he will play at some point this season.

"It's a difficult thing to go though and trust me I'd love to have answers myself sometimes when I was going through that but it's not as easy as that," said Crosby.

Dr. Michael Collins, one of two doctors who have worked with Crosby since the time of his injury, spoke at the press conference saying that while he expected Crosby to undergo a long recovery time when he first dealt with the injury, he has seen significant improvement recently and that his data is approaching normal limits.

"I see this as a manageable injury and we're making progress in Sid's case and I anticipate Sid returning to hockey and playing well in the future," said Collins.

He added that Crosby is currently in conditioning mode, and will not return until he is 100% recovered. He added that Crosby, while feeling better, isn't close to being cleared for contact.

The doctors said that Crosby was around 90% exertion rate during his workouts when he started to feel symptoms again and was shut down.

Crosby said that he feels more positive about recovering from the injury now than he has in a long time and that he is finally over the worse and on the path to making progress. He said that he never really considered retiring.

Crosby suffered a concussion during the Winter Classic against the Washington Capitals on New Year's Day. He returned four days later but left the January 5 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning after being hit into the boards. Crosby sat out the remainder of the season.

Penguins General Manager Ray Shero opened the press conference with a statement extending the team's condolences Lokomotiv team plane crash in Russia.

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