Heart-stopping finale denies Levein's men

PAUL KIDDIE AT PARKHEAD

AS the shellshocked Hearts players trudged off the Parkhead turf at full-time, they bore the look of men scarcely able to come to terms with what had just happened. It was easy to understand why.

Sitting on a 2-0 lead with 120 seconds of normal time left to play, the Jambos had been on course to succeed where the likes of the mighty Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus had all previously failed.

By the time referee Dougie McDonald had brought proceedings to a close, however, Hearts’ hopes of a famous victory lay in tatters after the runaway league leaders produced one of the season’s most stunning comebacks to snatch a draw and stretch their unbeaten home record to an amazing 76 matches.

Kevin McKenna and Mark de Vries had carved out the unlikely advantage for the underdogs only for goals from Chris Sutton and Didier Agathe to rescue a share of the spoils in a tumultuous finale.

As the former Hibee’s shot flew past Craig Gordon from six yards, the sight of Martin O’Neill leaping around on the touchline like someone who had just had a tin of itching powder poured down his trousers underlined the relief inside the home camp. The pained expressions in the visitors’ dug out told their own story.

On their last visit to the east end of Glasgow in October, the Jambos were hammered 5-0, the game over as a contest in the first half as their UEFA Cup exploits in Sarajevo just days earlier took their toll.

Dejected as Levein and his players were on that occasion, they probably felt even worse after Saturday’s dramatic chain of events.

Prior to the meeting with the champions-elect, the Tynecastle chief would have been more than happy to settle for a point against a team unbeaten at ‘Fortress Parkhead’ since August 2001.

But for Levein the 2-2 draw felt more like a defeat.

If it is any consolation, leaving Celtic Park unhappy with a point is perhaps a sign of just how far this Hearts team has developed under his guidance.

That will have been of little comfort to the Hearts boss as he headed back to the Capital after the match, no doubt reflecting over and over again just how his side had contrived to throw away such a golden opportunity.

"We did a lot of things well for 80-odd minutes," he said. "I was really pleased with everything we did apart from the last ten minutes or so.

"As teams do when they are under pressure, we retreated and allowed ourselves to be pushed back and we paid the price.

"Both goals were very similar with them getting the ball into the box after a pass or flick on and we were too deep.

"We need to learn from this. It was difficult to watch a golden chance like this slip through our fingers and the psychological hurdle which we would have overcome is the thing that I’m most disappointed about."

With Scott Severin a surprise inclusion after just one under-21 game under his belt after a three-month lay-off, Hearts set the tone for the afternoon as early as the second minute when Graham Weir dragged a shot wide from a good position.

It was clear the Gorgie outfit was determined to take the game to their hosts and the sell-out crowd was silenced after 21 minutes when McKenna stroked home his third goal of the season, the Canadian reacting quickly after Paul Hartley’s original effort was blocked on the six-yard line.

Celtic were finding it difficult to make any sort of impression with Hearts playing confident football and making a mockery of the 10-1odds against an away win.

And the league leaders had David Marshall to thank for keeping the score at 1-0 at the break, the keeper throwing himself down at his near post to deny McKenna a second goal three minutes from the interval.

A second-half onslaught from O’Neill’s men was expected but it was young midfielder Neil Janczyk who had the best chance in the opening exchanges after the turnaround, Marshall again doing well to block his shot at his near post.

Sutton then volleyed over as the Hearts back line retreated and moments later McKenna was left dazed and confused after being clattered by Bobo Balde, the Canadian having to be replaced by De Vries in the 74th minute.

Substitute Liam Miller fired narrowly wide before an unmarked Henrik Larsson somehow managed to scoop a shot over the bar from just eight yards out with 13 minutes remaining. After such an uncharacteristic miss by the Swede, the Jambos may just have started to feel it was going to be their day.

And their hopes soared 60 seconds later when De Vries turned Stanislav Varga and drilled a left-foot shot behind Marshall to send the small army of Hearts fans into dreamland.

Levein, though, acknowledged that even then a first managerial triumph at Parkhead could not be taken for granted.

"Celtic haven’t got into the position they are in by giving up when 2-0 down," he said.

"When you have guys like Liam Miller and Stilian Petrov to come off the bench to give the midfield more impetus, you can never think it is the bag."

And so it proved.

After Varga had come to his side’s rescue with a timely interception to deny Graham Weir a sight of goal, Sutton handed the Hoops a late lifeline.

Gordon saved well from the Englishman’s initial shot but the striker made the most of a fortunate ricochet of the keeper to crash home the rebound from close range with two minutes remaining.

In a frenzied finish, Larsson then saw a header cleared off the line by Robbie Neilson before De Vries missed a gilt-edged chance to tie the points up in the 90th minute, the unmarked Dutchman failing to make contact from Hartley’s cross just ten yards from goal.

And how the striker must have felt two minutes into injury time when Alan Thompson’s cross from the left was flicked on by Varga into the path of Agathe, who slammed the ball into the roof of Gordon’s net to complete a sensational fightback. Even then there was still time for Hearts to conjure up another opening, Alan Maybury blasting a shot just inches wide deep into stoppage time.

"I thought the lads worked so hard and were very brave," said Levein.

"The team is very strong mentally and generally will keep going for 90 minutes and usually it is us who will peg teams back late in the match.

"This hasn’t happened to us before, certainly not having been two goals in front.

"There is a different type of mental strength involved in going for the throat and trying to get a victory late on with nothing to lose than there is for defending a 2-0 lead.

"As a team we are really, really, disappointed and believe me there is a determination to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again."

Taken from the Scotsman