Celtic's sweet revenge

Match details

Heart of Midlothian (0) 1 Celtic (1) 2

J Parkers

After an encounter which happily was not quite as predictable as the scenes that preceded it, Celtic moved into their fourth Tennent's Scottish Cup final in five years under Martin O'Neill at the expense of a Heart of Midlothian side who played to their capacity for only half an hour at Hampden Park - sufficient to render the holders notably anxious and themselves deeply frustrated at the way they had surrendered damaging goals.

For many, though, the compelling last 30 minutes of this contest will not be the memory which lingers, but rather the spectacle of Stuart Dougal abandoning the minute's silence for Pope John Paul II after a mere 24 seconds as a cacophony of jeers and whistles from the Hearts support sabotaged the ritual.

Afterwards, the Hearts chief executive, Phil Anderton, issued a statement which read: "The club could not and would not condone the actions of those who chose to undermine the tribute to Pope John Paul II before the semi-final.

"Scottish football chose to join with people around the world to respect a minute's silence and it is disturbing that some Hearts fans failed to see the significance of this occasion.

''We are trying to generate an atmosphere where families are happy to return to football grounds around the country and the fact that their actions will have been covered live by Sky across the UK and beyond has done these ambitions no favours at all".

Anderton added that Hearts would convey their apologies to Celtic and the Scottish Football Association.

The jeering of the Hearts contingent will echo on throughout this week in the pronouncements and platitudes of politicians and others but at least the Tynecastle club did not make it an excuse for their poor start to the game, which was in such contrast to their achievement in inflicting a rare home league defeat on Celtic eight days earlier. A set of circumstances were accepted as givens beforehand: that it would be remarkable if Hearts played so well and Celtic so poorly in consecutive games; that the first goal would be very significant; and that the return of Chris Sutton, from injury, and Paul Hartley from suspension would reinforce their respective sides.

Within three minutes of the start, four of these five factors had come into play as Hearts conceded two corner kicks, from the second of which Steven Pressley allowed the ball to sail straight over him to Sutton, whose header into the net was both imperious and ominous.

Hearts looked flattened, all their psychological lift from the previous week blown away in the whipping Hampden win.

For the rest of the half they worked manfully to contain Celtic without ever suggesting they had the resources to retrieve their position. In fact, they were almost speared again just before the break as John Hartson narrowly failed to connect with a Stilian Petrov pass right in front of goal.

Four minutes after the interval a Hartson header rebounded from Hartley towards Craig Bellamy and the Welshman swivelled to drive low through Craig Gordon and in at the near post.

For Hearts it was another cheaply sold goal and they looked on the verge of collapse as a Bellamy cross struck their crossbar, -Stanislav Varga had a header cleared off the line by Lee Wallace and Alan Thompson forced Gordon into a close-range save as Celtic threatened to run away with the game.

However, their manager, John Robertson seized the initiative when he replaced Robbie Neilson with Deividas Cesnauskas, put the Lithuanian in midfield and switched Jamie McAllister to right back.

Exactly on the hour Cesnauskas turned the tables, latching on to McAllister's pass to wrongfoot Varga and beat David Marshall with a diagonal lob, all with one exquisite shimmy and touch. Now it was Celtic's turn to be infected by anxiety as the game became a rambunctious, absorbing cup tie.

Afterwards Bellamy praised dogged opponents and appeared to drop a hint that he might stay in Scotland at the end of his loan from Newcastle United.

"When we went two up I thought it would be three or four, but all credit to Hearts - I can't pronounce their scorer's name - for coming back at us," said Bellamy.

"I have definitely been inspired here. When you come to a club like Celtic it's hard not to be inspired.''

O'Neill said: "It's far to early to talk about signing him but the Celtic supporters, myself and the players would like him to stay.''

Match details

Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2): Gordon: Neilson (Cesnauskas 48), Pressley, Webster, Wallace; MacFarlane (Wyness 77), Hartley, Hammill (Kizys 57), McAllister; Miller, Burchill. Subs: Moilanen (g), Berra.
Goal: Cesnauskas 60).
Celtic (4-4-2): Marshall; McNamara, Balde, Varga, Valgaeren; Petrov, Lennon, Sutton, Thompson; Bellamy, Hartson (McGeady 71).
Subs: Douglas (g), Henchoz, Lambert, Maloney.
Booked: McGeady.
Goals: Sutton (3), Bellamy (49).
Referee: S Dougal.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk