Petrov feels hard-Don by as unbeaten run is ended

ANDREW SMITH

ONLY two wins from six games and none in the past four home games, which have brought three draws and a defeat. So, as they visit Hearts today - the last away ground at which they endured a Premierleague defeat - the question to ponder is: when exactly did the wheels come off for Celtic?

Such a tongue-in-cheek contention patently ill-befits a side who were unbeatable in annexing the title, and are odd-ons to clinch a double in the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline on May 22. But losing 2-1 at home to a heavily- depleted Aberdeen on Wednesday was equally ill-befitting of Martin O’Neill’s men. It amounted to a Halley’s Comet happening, bearing in mind Aberdeen were, until midweek, the only SPL side yet to score in the Glasgow amphitheatre in O’Neill’s time at Celtic.

The crashing and burning of both the club’s 77-game unbeaten home record and bid to remain undefeated throughout an entire championship campaign transformed a meaningless league match into the greatest shock of recent times in the Scottish game. An upset that proved beyond comprehension to Stilian Petrov.

"It really hurts you," he admits. "We’ve played against Barcelona, Juventus, Porto, Lyon, against some of the best players in the world and never lost and then we lose to Aberdeen. I don’t want to say anything [derogatory] about them; they did their jobs took their chances and won. But it really hurts when you’ve played at a high level in the Champions League and UEFA Cup without losing, then lose in this way. But that is why people love football."

Celtic contested 19 ties in Europe between losing out 1-0 to Ajax in August 2001 and the defeat by Paterson’s men four days ago. But it was in playing 77 matches across all competitions without coming off second best that they snatched the all-time home unbeaten record for a Scottish club from Airdrie, who racked up a 67-game such sequence between September 1922 and December 1925. Further, in having gone 38 league matches without defeat prior to Wednesday, Celtic can now lay claim to the post-war Scottish record for consecutive league games unbeaten.

It cannot be mere coincidence that during O’Neill’s tenure the two league games Celtic have lost in their own backyard - the first being a 2-0 reverse to Dundee in May 2001 - have come once the title has been decided. Petrov, however, has no wish to seize on this fact to account for the fate befalling the team against Aberdeen. "You are concentrating 100%, we are professional and should give 100%," he says. "That is what we did and there is no excuse, we should be able to go out and win games at Celtic Park."

Bizarrely, for all that the champions have been setting new standards in the league this season, the Dons’ triumph in the east end of Glasgow means that Celtic have now dropped more points at home this season than in any previous one under O’Neill. "They are not robots, even if at times they seem to be," Aberdeen midfielder Markus Heikkinen offered by way of explanation for Celtic’s carelessness in squandering a 1-0 lead last week. O’Neill too has subsequently acknowledged that keeping his players mentally attuned to performing with the edge required for the necessary competitiveness will be "tricky". Possibly all the more so with the manager’s admission that, ahead of the cup final, he will deploy some inexperienced youngsters and rest weary-limbed mainstays.

Yet the bad blood between Hearts and Celtic, both players and fans, should ensure that today’s encounter between the pair focuses the minds of all those who take the pitch. Undoubtedly, Tynecastle was the scene of Celtic’s best domestic display of the season, Petrov to the fore with a double, in an awesome 3-0 Scottish Cup win in February. "There have been a lot of good performances this season and that was only one of them," the Bulgarian captain states.

Petrov says he hopes that Celtic’s unbeaten runs now consigned to history can be rivalled in his time at the club. Thse might be what you would call high hopes. As in skyscraper high.

Taken from the Scotsman