Beni Baningime's Hearts contract revelation, Rangers ace 'doesn't want to torture himself', Celtic feeling confident - Scottish football news

A round-up of some of the football stories across the Scottish game this Monday morning:

Celtic in a good place

Celtic defender Cameron Carter-Vickers believes the team are in good shape ahead of facing Rangers this Sunday. The defending Premiership champions regained their place at the top above Rangers by defeating Livingston 3-0 and afterwards, the American defender said: “I think we’re in a good place. The last three, four weeks, we’ve been in a good place performance-wise. There was a disappointing result away at Hearts with the red card and the penalty. But other than that, as a whole the last few weeks’ performances have been pretty good. It’s just about maintaining that and taking it into the last few games.”

Baningime impressed by signings

Hearts' Beni Baningime and Kilmarnock's Liam Polworth in action during Saturday's 1-1 draw at Tynecastle.

Out-of-contract Hearts midfielder Beni Baningime says he will not be signing a deal with anyone before the end of the season – but has been impressed by the calibre of player the Jambos have tied up for next term. Ross County midfielder Yan Dhanda, Motherwell playmaker Blair Spittal and Livingston defender James Penrice have all agreed with pre-contracts with Hearts for the 2024/25 campaign. And Baningime said: “The three players that are said to be coming are great players. Playing against them, they are tidy players and are going to add to us. Hopefully if we can finish strongly and get third they are going to be a great addition and help push us on for next season and to be even better than this season. All the players have been speaking about it and when I first heard about it I was really impressed. Would that help with me staying here long term – 100 per cent but I won’t be signing any contract with anyone before the end of the season. We’re doing it at the end of the season. I’ve spoken with my family, there won’t be any pre-contract with this team or this team.”

Wright opens up on disallowed goal

Rangers winger Scott Wright says he does not want to “torture” himself by looking at his disallowed goal in the 3-1 win over Hibs. Wright thought he had scored the opener when he fired home the rebound from James Tavernier’s missed penalty, only for VAR to intervene and deem that he had encroached prior to the spot-kick being taken. Rangers shrugged of that disappointment to prevail and Wright said: “I don’t want to torture myself by looking at it. I asked the ref at the time if it was close and he said it was close. It's just one of those things. It was frustrating for me because I want to add stuff to my game, but that is not going to define our performance. I can help the team in more ways than one. The fact we didn’t let that decision derail us shows the character of the team we are trying to build. It is the team that the manager wants us to look like.”

McGrath: New boss could be watching

Aberdeen midfielder Jamie McGrath knows that performance levels at Pittodrie have to be kept high – because the new manager could be watching at any minute. The Dons are still searching for a permanent replacement for Barry Robson and eased some of the pressure on them with a 2-1 win over Ross County on Saturday. Irishman McGrath scored the winner and said: “We don’t know who’s going to be the new gaffer. He could have been watching us against Ross County, we don’t know. So everyone has to play to their max as the new manager might come in and have different ideas. We’re all trying our best as we do every week whether there’s a manager there or not. Attitude today was brilliant although the performance wasn’t the best but we got there in the end.”

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