Celtic 1 - 1 Hearts

Michael Grant at Celtic Park

THE flagpole was yanked this way and that at Parkhead, but it held firm. This morning it is still the Hearts banner that flutters at the summit of the SPL. With a professional and persuasive performance in their first league visit of the season to Glasgow, Hearts hushed those who suspected their challenge would melt away as soon as they faced some serious heat at the opposite end of the M8.

It would be premature to make sweeping forecasts about the next seven months on the basis of 90 minutes. What Hearts do in the January transfer window is likely to be more revealing than how they coped with Parkhead. What they displayed yesterday, though, was a series of compelling answers to the various questions put to them. After about an hour, the impression grew that Celtic were running out of ideas about how to penetrate George Burley’s compact, industrious team. That, in itself, was highly revealing given the prowess of Celtic’s recent form.

Celtic threw what they had at Hearts in the knowledge that a victory – which would have been their sixth consecutive league win – would have seen them supplant the Edinburgh club at the top of the table. That confirmed how Hearts proved their credentials here. Clubs occasionally steal away from Glasgow with a result, but they rarely do so when Celtic or Rangers are respectful of their threat from the outset. That was the case yesterday, but Hearts were a match for Celtic. Their disciplined pressing and capacity to retain their shape meant Celtic were always confronted by a body of maroon shirts. And Hearts’ work-rate ensured they did not simply play defensively. Burley had identified the cancellation of Celtic’s creative midfielders as key to a successful afternoon and Hearts capitalised on that by pressing them and being menacing on the break.

The goals came early. Hearts expected Alan Thompson to deliver his free-kick into the box but he played it short to Shunsuke Nakamura, whose deep cross was headed into the goalmouth by Neil Lennon.

The Hearts defence’s clearance was half-hearted and allowed Beattie to bring the ball down, steady himself and smash a shot that deflected high off Julien Brellier and past Steve Banks, the goalkeeper deputising for the suspended Craig Gordon.

Hearts’ response arrived quickly. Before Celtic were able to settle into a period of supremacy, or the visitors succumb to nerves from being behind and under pressure in front of a baying 60,000 crowd, they were gifted the most unlikely of equalisers.

Edgaras Jankauskas’s through-ball should have been swept up by Paul Telfer but he left it for his goalkeeper, Artur Boruc, who found himself in a chase with Rudi Skacel. It seemed like Boruc’s ball, but Skacel slid in to dispossess him before rising to sweep a shot into the unguarded net.

At no time in Burley’s preparation for the match could he have anticipated being the beneficiary of such a cheap goal. Skacel was so pleased with his eighth strike in 10 SPL matches that he was booked for straying off the field during his celebrations.

The caution seemed mean-spirited but others came to referee Dougie McDonald’s attention for more predictable reasons. Of the game’s five bookings all but one of them arrived within the first 40 minutes and the competitiveness of the match was epitomised in an exchange between Steven Pressley and Thompson – the Hearts player making an illegal tackle, the Celtic man reacting angrily – which earned them both a yellow card and briefly threatened to create a melee.

The game was unusual in being a niggly affair, full of stoppages for free-kicks, yet punctuated by a number of chances for either side. In front of their own supporters and trailing Hearts by three points, the responsibility was on Celtic to take the initiative.

For most of the afternoon, they did. A Bobo Balde header struck the foot of the post even before Beattie’s early opener, while Banks made two impressive parried saves from Thompson before an acrobatic dive later allowed him to reach a Shaun Maloney free-kick which was dipping in at his top left hand corner.

Yet there was no protracted spell when Hearts simply rested on the ropes, absorbing punishment. Andy Webster might have embellished his outstanding defensive performance with a goal but missed a header and later shot over the bar, while Jankauskas scooped a shot over and Skacel was denied a second goal only by Boruc’s sharp reaction to save at his feet.

Celtic went for it at the end and Maloney and John Hartson lifted them as substitutes. Indeed, seven minutes from the time, Hartson should have won it. Maloney’s delivery picked him out and the Welshman stooped for a header only to send the ball up over the crossbar. That could have beaten Hearts, but it would not have broken them. For the moment, nothing can.

16 October 2005

Taken from the Sunday Herald