Celtics' Lee Naylor hopes to trounce Dundee United

Celtic Lee Naylor is aiming to make Dundee United suffer on Boxing Day for the Parkhead club's recent run of poor results.

The Hoops have handed Rangers the initiative in the Scottish Premier League after winning only six points from their last five games.

Walter Smith's side are now only two points behind the league leaders with two games in hand and, with an Old Firm encounter looming on January 2, Celtic must quickly return to winning ways.

Left-back Naylor has been out for four weeks with an ankle injury, but returned to first team action in Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Hibernian.

And Englishman admits he cannot wait to take on United at Tannadice and help Celtic put their title defense back on track.

Naylor "We've not had the best of spells recently and although we've had a lot of injuries we're not making excuses.

"The players who came in are good enough to have won those matches but our results have been disappointing. All teams go through periods like this but it's how you react to them that's important," he said. "We can't wait for the game against United on Wednesday."

"We're fit, want to play and want to make up for the last few games. That's the only way you can put a disappointing result behind you -- by going out and doing your best. The boys are all desperate to get back on the park as soon as possible and determined to put on a show against United," he said.

Craig Levein's United will also be determined to bounce back from a disappointing result on Saturday, after they lost to bottom of the table Gretna for the second time this season.

However, the Tannadice team have already shown they are capable of beating the Old Firm on their own patch -- after defeating Rangers 2-1 in October -- and it should be another close encounter.

Second Rangers, meanwhile, also failed to win at the weekend when they drew 1-1 at Aberdeen on Sunday.

Today they face third placed Motherwell at Ibrox and will hope to keep the pressure on Celtic by taking all three points.

Mark McGhee's Motherwell have been the surprise package of the SPL season but after a run of five straight wins they lost 3-0 at home to Falkirk on Saturday.

In the other SPL games on Boxing Day Falkirk are at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle -- with both teams currently hitting a rich vein of form.

The Bairns have now won three and drawn one of their last five games to move up to eighth in the table.

Caley done even better with five straight wins -- including a sensational 3-2 win at home to champions Celtic -- to go seventh in the table, three points ahead of Falkirk.

Bottom the table Gretna will be hoping their second win of the season against Dundee United -- the only team they have managed to defeat -- can be the start of a survival bid.