McLaughlin steps in with his first strikes. Grant's ban may give Collins early reprieve

IAN PAUL
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25 Sep 1995

Hearts 0, Celtic 4

THEY may see things from opposite sides of the argument, but both John Collins and Celtic manager Tommy Burns showed considerable courage at the weekend, and maybe if they could settle their differences, the merged strength of character could be a big asset to the club.

Collins, rightly or wrongly, felt he had to give his side of the story after further speculation about his future at Parkhead. Burns reacted by dropping his international midfield man on Saturday morning, and sending him off to play for the reserves.

Collins took a gamble that his career with Celtic would be ended without being certain of a future anywhere else: Burns took an even greater risk, especially as he was taking a team to Tynecastle already minus three top players, Pierre van Hooydonk, Andreas Thom and Phil O'Donnell. Had the result gone the wrong way, the manager would have suffered a great deal of criticism.

Instead, his relatively makeshift side produced their best result for a long time and Burns could afford himself a satisfied smile. Now comes the next hard bit. Unless he sells Collins this week, and Blackburn are reputedly joining in the chase, he has to decide whether or not to bring back Collins, smooth over the dispute, and get on with the preparation for two vital games -- the European Cup-winners' Cup-tie with Batumi on Thursday at Parkhead, and two days later the second Old Firm meeting of the season, at the same venue.

Chris Hay and Brian McLaughlin did well for the club at Tynecastle and are entitled to think they should be candidates for a place in the next two games as well but, especially in the meeting with Rangers, the experience and influence of a player of Collins' talent is hard to replace.

The absence of suspended Peter Grant for Saturday's match, with O'Donnell doubtful, makes the manager's dilemma all the more acute.

Burns said that he had left Collins out ''to avoid turning the match into a sideshow.'' Asked if the demotion was a one-off situation, he replied, somewhat cryptically: ''You never shut the door on anything in football.''

Sod's Law being ever present in the old ball game, the man who wore the Collins shirt, McLaughlin, scored twice, yet he had never scored for the club at first-team level. In fact, despite the shenanigans that were to follow, it was Brian's two-goal stint inside the first nine minutes which virtually settled the points.

Hearts never abandoned hope, and had much of the play at times, but there was never any danger of them catching, let alone overtaking the Parkhead team. There was much argy bargy, of course, not assisted by a referee who did not act decisively when it mattered, and was too strict when it didn't.

The sending off of Peter Grant is a case in point. Despite all the protestations, both from Grant and his team mates, as well as John Robertson who was involved in the incident, the fact that the Celtic man appeared to swing a boot at Robertson as they clashed off the ball in midfield was an offence that would have warranted his dismissal. But TV evidence showed him to be innocent.

Robertson had been guilty of responding with a push on Grant's face, but quickly soothed troubled waters by politely helping Grant to his feet. That subterfuge seemed to work because Robertson, who had been booked earlier, did not receive any admonishment, yet the stand side linesman, who was a lot further away from the incident than either of the other officials, apparently saw Grant's so-called misdemeanour, but not that of the Hearts man.

It was the linesman who brought the attention of the referee, who had been no more than 20 yards away from the incident, to the collision and once the two had conferred, referee Bobby Orr showed Grant a red card.

The Celtic man had also been booked earlier, but it seemd this second offence was treated as violent conduct on its own. He may miss more than just the Old Firm match as a result, when his disciplinary points are tallied. But he and the club may approach the SFA in light of the TV evidence.

There was a further red card to come, this time for Scott Leitch, who got worked up when he was assailed by a posse of Celtic men and lashed out at Paul McStay. Off he went, too. In all there were six yellow cards and two reds shown, but it was by no means mayhem. Quite a few of the bookings were marginal and generally there was more energy than malice about the action.

Celtic could be well pleased with McLaughlin's contribution. His opening goal was a quick reaction to a parry by keeper Craig Nelson of a McStay shot, but his second, a raking run past a trio of defenders before shooting into the net, was one he will cherish.

Hearts may have harboured some hopes when they came out for the second half, but within two minutes they knew it was not to be. Andy Walker who had already shown signs of his best form for some time, did tremendously well to hold off challenges from Dave McPherson and Paul Ritchie before steering the ball past Nelson. Grant was sent into the dressing room four minutes later and Leitch joined him 15 minutes after that. Walker chipped in the fourth and that was definitely that.

''What we need is not cosmetic surgery, but major surgery,'' said Hearts manager Jim Jefferies who at least has been made aware quickly how tough a task he has taken on.

Taken from the Herald