Goalkeeper: Langfield (Aberdeen)
Defenders: Hutton (Rangers), Ross (Falkirk), Berra (Hearts), Munro (Inverness CT)
Midfielders: Mason (St. Mirren), Arfield (Falkirk), Chisholm (Hibernian)
Strikers: Niculae (Inverness CT), Naismith (Rangers), Velicka (Hearts)

Rangers have played unimpressive football in the past month, but unlike Celtic, they have managed to turn that slump into a streak of skin-of-their-teeth wins, and they have made up ground to take back the top spot in the league. If any one player’s efforts have pushed them to those tight wins, it’s been Steven Naismith, and his opening goal against Dundee United, as well as his efforts the whole match, make him one of only two members of last week’s eleven to repeat. Alan Hutton also makes the list this week for Rangers. After turning down eight million quid from Spurs, he got back to his usual business at Ibrox Saturday, just barely hitting woodwork once and setting up Ferguson on a number of occasions.

The other returning player from last week’s eleven is Jamie Langfield. Aberdeen’s offense continues to stumble, and Dons have scored just three goals in the past four matches. But Langfield has allowed only one. This week’s two clean sheets and fifteen saves were more than enough for repeat honors, and his stop on Inverness’ Richard Hastings in the final minutes to preserve Dons’ 1-0 win was a marvel. Even an opposing fan like me had to respect it.

Inverness Caley Thistle fans (this one included) were losing a bit of faith in the abilities of Marius Niculae. The club’s all-time most expensive signing, Niculae came in with a roar of media attention, which quickly settled to a whimper. He started his SPL career with two goals in 19 matches, but the past two weeks have seen him finally show his quality. Four goals in two weeks, with braces against both Kilmarnock and Gretna, is more than enough to earn him a place on this list. He even gets partial credit for the third goal, a John Rankin penalty that he forced with a strong drive into the Gretna box. Grant Munro made impressive stops in both of Inverness’ matches this week, enough to earn his first starting eleven place.

St. Mirren played only once this week, the 2-1 win over Hibs on Saturday. The Hibees’ struggles continued as they managed only two shots on the Buddies’ goal, and conceded 55% of possession to a St. Mirren side that rarely gets that stat in their favor. Credit for the win goes in large part to Gary Mason, not just for his first-half goal (assisted by Hibs captain Rob Jones), but also his control and passing. The win moved the Buddies out of eleventh place and put a team between themselves and Gretna for the first time in months.

Another midfield spot is taken up by Falkirk’s Scott Arfield. After assisting on the Bairns’ only goal of their two matches this week, he continued to play some absolutely lovely balls down the pitch. Falkirk looks to be missing nothing more than another good striker to challenge the top six, and they may be playing the most attractive flowing football in Scotland right now, Old Firm included. On the defensive side of the ball, Falkirk, like Aberdeen, kept two clean sheets this week, but unlike Dons, who relied on Langfield for 15 saves, Falkirk needed their two keepers Krul and Olejnik to combine for only eleven. That means good defending, and no one was tighter at full-back than Jack Ross.

The way Hearts have been playing lately, a point was a relief on Saturday against Killie. Andrius Velicka scored a 63rd minute goal that saved not only a vital home point, but might just have started the road to recovery for the Jambos. A home loss to Killie, the seventh straight in the league, would have just deepened the fans’ and players’ pain, and Velicka’s poke gave them both something to cheer about, if only for a short time. Ridiculously young captain Christophe Berra set up that goal and scored one on United earlier in the week, and these two players, seemingly the only two starters not red-carded in the past two matches, could be the key to a Hearts resurgence.

Across town at Easter Road, the green side of Edinburgh isn’t having the best of times either. Hibs haven’t won since early November, and are on a streak of three straight heart-breaking one-point losses. Midfielder Ross Chisholm at least did his part on Saturday, setting up the only Hibs goal and making a few good efforts at goal. Admittedly, given the quality of both Celtic’s and Motherwell’s midfields, his performance might not have made this list in a full week, but when you’ve gone almost two months without a win, any bright spot is worth holding on to.

To reiterate the rules of this column, I pick a formation of eleven SPL players based on their performances in the past week. 1 keeper, 4 defenders, 3-5 midfielders, and 1-3 forwards are selected, without consideration to their more specific positions. If there are four great left-backs, then we have a defense of all left-backs. Here goes.

My Starting XI for Week 19/20 in the SPL are:
GK: Langfield (Aberdeen)
DF: Balde (Celtic), McManus (Celtic), Quinn (Motherwell), Aafjes (Falkirk)
MF: Cowie (Inverness), Jenkins (Gretna), McGeady (Celtic)
FW: Clarkson (Motherwell), Cousin (Rangers), Lovell (Aberdeen)

Aberdeen had a tough week, but without Jamie Langfield and Steve Lovell, it could have been a lot worse. First, yes, Jamie did let in a goal against Gretna, but his twelve saves in the week’s two matches for Aberdeen secured them one clean sheet and four points, when the offense (one player aside) was stumbling. That one player was substitute Steve Lovell. His two goals this week, one in the 86th minute against Gretna to secure a point and the other in the 85th to beat St. Mirren, were the team’s only goals. He was literally a three-point substitution, since without him a win and a draw would be a loss and a draw.

After being left off of the list last week, Celtic came back in a very big way in the past two matchdays. Bobo Balde is wearing a halo around the green side of Glasgow this week, after his return to the Hoops defense seems to have brought some stability to that leaky back four. Two clean sheets and a total scoreline of 5-0 against Dundee United and Gretna, with two different keepers, makes Bobo a no-brainer this week. In addition, Steven McManus not only held tight on defense, but scored another goal of his own against United. Aiden McGeady, who might have the best form of any midfielder in the league right now, booted in one against Gretna and assisted another. But it was also the passes that didn’t, but should have led to goals that earns him this spot. Had he been passing to the Scott McDonald of October, or the Vennegor of Hesselink of last season, Celtic would have at least one more goal.

The other two defenders on the list both had impressive weeks as well. Falkirk managed two wins this week and conceded one total goal, beating both an in-form Inverness Caley Thistle (breaking our 5-game win streak) and an admittedly out-of-form Hearts. Gerard Aafjes came into the Inverness match on return from a foot injury, and he gave the foot at least a little rest, using his head to put the game’s only goal past Micheal Fraser for his first goal as a Bairn. Meanwhile, Motherwell’s Paul Quinn managed an equalizer against Rangers before compatriot Chris Porter’s own goal handed the match back to the Gers.

Gretna has had a tough go of it in their first year in the top flight, and stand alone at the bottom of the league. As St. Mirren, Kilmarnock and now Hearts falter, every point that Gretna can grab is vital if there is any hope of staying up in the SPL. Allan Jenkins was already responsible for a few of those points this season, getting the game-winner against Dundee United in Gretna’s first-ever top flight win, and he added to his prestige with the club this week against Aberdeen, netting an injury-time equalizer that salvaged a priceless point from the Dons.

Rangers’ Daniel Cousin scored two this week, both at incredibly important times. First, he opened the scoring against Motherwell, giving Rangers the lead going into the half. A few days later, he scored the winning goal over Hibs, saving Rangers from the same 1-1 fate that the Hibees had inflicted on Celtic a week earlier. In Inverness, Don Cowie continues to be the center of the Caley team that has won six of seven. He added his sixth of the season against Kilmarnock. In any other week, Marius Niculae’s brace might have won him a spot here too, but there were just too many inspired strikers this time around.

Of course, as I said before, this week will not be remembered for football, and there are few for whom this is more true than Motherwell’s David Clarkson. The joy of the brace he scored in the span of less than two minutes to put away Dundee United is surely forgotten, as it was only twenty minutes later that he watched in horror as his uncle and captain collapsed. I include him in this week’s eleven not out of sympathy and not to honor his uncle, but to recognize that even though those two goals are meaningless to him in the context of what else happened, on any other day they would have earned him this spot.