Celtic 1 Hearts 1: Lethal Skacel keeps Hearts in right place

Steven Pressley may have been uncertain for Scotland a week ago but he was resolute here, repeatedly clearing his lines and inspiring the team in front of him. Andy Webster and Julien Brellier also stood tall as Celtic attempted to turn the screw in the final quarter. The wonder was that either side still had energy left by then after a game that started briskly and gathered momentum thereafter, sometimes spinning a little out of control of both managers, tactically, and the referee, in terms of discipline, after the teams swapped early goals.

Celtic’s came first and was tinged with controversy as it followed a free-kick which was angrily contested by Rudi Skacel, who was judged to have knocked Shunsuke Nakamura over near the corner flag. Alan Thompson, preferred to Shaun Maloney, shaped for an inswinger but instead knocked it short to the Japan midfielder whose crossfield sweep found Neil Lennon coming in at the back post unmarked. Lennon nodded across goal and, although Pressley cleared, the ball it fell to Craig Beattie whose left-foot shot took a deflection off Brellier and beyond Steve Banks into the net. Celtic might have extended their lead immediately when Mo Camara won a free-kick from an acrimonious meeting with Robbie Neilson and Thompson’s free-kick was headed against a post by Bobo Balde.

That might have given the impression that Hearts were shrinking under an early onslaught but this was certainly not the case, as they had already threatened to score themselves before going behind. Paul Hartley made a trademark break from midfield to test Artur Boruc before a slanted Rudi Skacel free-kick eluded both Pressley and Webster as it made its way across Celtic’s box. The Czech midfielder is becoming one of the stars of Scottish football and when the ball returned to the centre circle after Celtic’s goal he could be seen exhorting his colleagues to greater efforts. In the din his words might have been lost but his actions were to prove articulate as he quickly provided Hearts’ equaliser. It came after 15 minutes as Paul Telfer attempted to shepherd Edgaras Jankauskas’s through pass back to Boruc but the mutual hesitation in this arrangement was sensed by Skacel, whose spurt allowed him to cannon a shot off the goalkeeper’s chest then get up quickly to tuck the loose ball away for his eighth goal of the season as Lennon started an inquest.

Although Celtic reasserted themselves territorially after this, Hearts continued to make spearing incisions into the areas they claimed like a band of guerillas in maroon. From one such sortie, Jankauskas spooned a shot over the bar from Samuel Camazzola’s pass when you might have expected better from his sound technique. A one-two between Stilian Petrov and Chris Sutton then saw the Bulgarian bounce a shot just wide of Banks’s goal. The teams were exchanging more than chances, though. Chris Sutton, restored to attack to accommodate Lennon, got a yellow card after tangling with Pressley then trampling on him. Hearts’ captain might have felt he was taking on a tag-team when Thompson reacted furiously to a tackle that looked fair and both were booked after some squaring up off the ‘haud me back’ variety you see outside pubs of a Saturday evening.

Thompson was getting tetchier by the minute but found a form of release in a left-foot shot that was saved well by Banks, then Pressley produced a resolute tackle as he was being stretched by Beattie’s pace when a miscalculation could have brought a red card. Half-time was required to soothe tempers as well as legs but the game was soon rolling on merrily again as Banks sprang to save Telfer’s shot and Skacel missed out on a second goal when over-running the ball after a one-two with Jankauskas.

Banks cowered under crosses at times but continued to make excellent saves on his line, the pick being a tremendous tip over when Shaun Maloney, who had replaced Thompson, sent a free-kick spinning and dipping toward his top left-hand corner. Hearts, meanwhile, must have wished that a loose ball in Celtic’s box had fallen to a striker rather than Webster, who provided a centre-back’s finish. Strachan threw on John Hartson for Lennon and the Welshman put himself about in the box, nodding down for Sutton to put the second header too close to Banks, then getting a free header of his own from a Maloney corner but putting it over. It seemed strange that a game of such action should end in a stalemate yet that was the right result.

STAR MAN: Steven Pressley (Hearts)

Player ratings. Celtic: Boruc 5, Telfer 5, Balde 7, McManus 6, Camara 6, Nakamura 6 (Agathe 83min, 5), Lennon 6 (Hartson 69min, 6), Petrov 6, Thompson 5 (Maloney 63min, 6), Beattie 6, Sutton 6

Hearts: Banks 7, Neilson 6, Pressley 8, Webster 7, Fyssas 6, Camazzola 6, Brellier 7, Hartley 7, Skacel 7, Pospisil 5 (Elliot 77min, 6), Jankauskas 7 Booked: Skacel 17, Sutton 35, Thompson 38, Pressley 38, Brellier 64

Attendance: 60,108

Referee: Dougie McDonald

Taken from timesonline.co.uk