Hearts break Celtic barrier

GRAEME CROSER AT TYNECASTLE

AUSTIN McCANN’S stunning winner seemed to take an age to hit the net but having waited two and a half years to taste victory over Celtic, a split-second or so extra was never going to bother Craig Levein.

Time seemed to slow down as the Hearts defender’s shot soared past Rab Douglas but as the ball thumped off the post on its way into the rigging, Tynecastle erupted into a frenzy.

McCann’s shot was virtually the last kick of the game and the final toot of referee John Rowbotham’s whistle signalled, in Levein’s own words, "the breaking down of a barrier".

The obvious benefit of the result was the three points which have edged the Jambos tantalisingly close to a UEFA Cup place - with five games remaining the Gorgie men are now seven points clear of closest challengers Kilmarnock in third place.

But Levein found a deeper significance in the day’s events.

For months he has talked up his side’s efforts against the Old Firm, pointing to an everimproving level of performance. The trouble was, he was always speaking on the back of a defeat.

Some might have perceived his observations as being excessively optimistic, but the head coach sensed a genuine, if gradual, upturn in the quality of their play against the country’s top two.

If ever the stage was set for the big breakthrough it was Saturday. With Celtic chasing glory both at home and in Europe, Martin O’Neill’s men have looked jaded of late.

Hearts, meanwhile, have been on a roll. Tynecastle has been turned into something of a fortress this term and the team in maroon are now undefeated in eight games on their own patch.

If any extra motivation was needed, Levein provided it by showing his players part of Motherwell’s spirited first-half display against Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final.

The effect was obvious from the off.

Within a minute a thumping challenge from skipper Steven Pressley had landed Alan Thompson on the touchline. The message was simple - Hearts weren’t going to be bullied by the SPL’s defending champions.

Levein said: "I was really pleased with how we went about the game. The lads watched part of the Motherwell game and saw how well they had started and how competitive they had been to get their goals.

"We knew we had to do the same and the players went out there and hustled, harried, made tackles and eventually got their reward.

"I’ve turned up at press conferences after matches before and said we are improving but that doesn’t ultimately count for much if you are continually being beat.

"To be honest I haven’t even thought of this result in terms of European qualification. I saw the game as a chance to break down some barriers.

"If you want to improve in Scotland then the yardstick is the Old Firm. I was getting worried after so many games that we hadn’t managed to beat them but then this Celtic team is a very good team - maybe that’s the simple reason we hadn’t managed to get a result.

"They now play a European semi-final this week and I hope they get through and win it. But today I had to think about my own team and I’m delighted we got the result."

McCann’s goal arrived almost three minutes into stoppage-time with Celtic piling forward to try and eke out a winner themselves. The excellent Scott Severin collected a loose ball deep inside his own half and surged forward deep into the opposing half before picking out McCann on the overlap. The young full-back drew back his left foot and sent an unstoppable shot flying past Douglas.

The jubilation which greeted that goal raised the atmosphere a notch or two from the joyous scenes which greeted Phil Stamp’s earlier equaliser.

Severin was again the provider on that occasion when he collected a Pressley free-kick at the back post and drove the ball across goal where Phil Stamp slid in to knock the ball home. It was no more than the Jambos deserved after falling behind against the run of play to a characteristically clinical piece of strike play by Henrik Larsson.

The Swede’s opener came after a Douglas goal-kick was head-flicked by John Hartson into the path of Didier Agathe who motored past McCann before cutting the ball back for Larsson to dink it over Tepi Moilanen and into the roof of the net.

The Hoops goal came almost 15 minutes after half-time and was a real sucker-punch as the home side had started far stronger in the second half.

Stamp should have scored when put through by Andy Webster but was denied by the legs of Douglas before the Scotland keeper beat away an Alan Maybury drive from the edge of the area.

Such incidents were typical of a game in which Hearts mustered more than double Celtic’s efforts on target.

The inclusion of Graham Weir in attack alongside Mark de Vries was the one surprise in the starting line-up, Levein obviously having remembered the way the pair had linked at Celtic Park in a 4-2 defeat on Boxing Day last year.

The little and large combination gave the Hoops defence plenty to think about with Weir - despite his lack of height and the fact he hadn’t started a first-team game since January - proving that he wasn’t about to be out-muscled by the strongest defence in the land.

When the front duo weren’t wreaking havoc in the opposing half they were setting a fine example by defending from the front.

The midfield four remained resolute from first till last, while in defence Webster turned in the sort of mature performance which has caught the eye of Scotland coach Berti Vogts.

In fact the whole team seemed to be running on Duracell, maintaining the high tempo of their play until the very end.

Tiredness just didn’t seem to be a factor, as Levein acknowledged by opting not to use the first of his substitutes until eight minutes from the end.

He continued: "I didn’t change it earlier because even after we went behind I didn’t see anybody stop running, stop chasing their man or stop trying to make forward runs.

"The stats will tell you that we score goals late in games so that makes it easy for me to egg them on and push them forward. We never stopped believing that we could pull it back and take something from the match.

"I didn’t expect to score a winner like that but maybe it was going to take something that special to beat Rab Douglas."

Taken from the Scotsman