Hearts beating proudly

PAUL KIDDIE
AT CELTIC PARK

Celtic 1
Hearts 1

GIVEN his preference to play down his side's title credentials, Hearts boss George Burley presumably cringed just a touch when he read weekend reports of Vladimir Romanov's aim of winning the Champions League within three years.

In stark contrast to his manager, the club's principal shareholder doesn't mind backing his vast expenditure at Tynecastle with bold words of intent.

The Baltic millionaire's latest statement emerged as he took his seat at Parkhead for Saturday's top-of-the-table showdown with Celtic in the company of son Roman and trusted lieutenant Sergei Fedotovas, both of whom no doubt share Romanov's ambitious dream.

Whether Burley regards such a short timeframe in which to establish the Jambos as kings of Europe as practical is doubtful given he's always stated that just to finish third in the SPL in his first season in charge would reflect huge progress for the Gorgie outfit.

The canny Scot has quietly gone about his business since being installed in the summer with his priority to see the Jambos do well enough to bring a return to European football after last term's league disappointment.

To that end, he could not have hoped for a better start to his tenure with Hearts basking in the glory of being league leaders as they headed along the M8 to the east end of Glasgow. Ninety pulsating minutes later and their unbeaten record remained unblemished, a three-point lead over their hosts safely intact.

With just Dunfermline's visit to the Capital to come this weekend before the first quarter of the season is complete, it's been a fairytale couple of months or so for the Romanov Revolution.

It may not have been a perfect ten but it's been as near as damn it.

With the struggling Pars next on the horizon, the Jambos have dropped points on just two occasions - at Falkirk when they came roaring back from 2-0 down with ten men to draw 2-2, and against Celtic.

"Nobody could have envisaged us being top of the league and unbeaten after ten games," said Burley. "It's now a case of building on this as you never know what's round the corner in football.

"I was pleased with the way my team performed. We went to Parkhead with no fear and tried to pass the ball and cause Celtic problems which we did. I thought the match was a great advert for SPL football."

It was also a great advert for what Burley is doing at Tynecastle.

Having already beaten Rangers at home last month when many were expecting Hearts to falter, the talk of bursting bubbles now floated over to Parkhead as the Jambos faced up to their most difficult examination of the season.

Once again, though, the players clad in maroon answered every question asked of them.

Spirits could have been affected by Craig Beattie's fortunate 13th-minute opener, the striker's shot taking a wicked deflection over Steve Banks as Takis Fyssas and Julien Brellier attempted to close him down.

It was a cruel blow for a team which had started to brightly, Paul Hartley, Steven Pressley and Edgar Jankauskas having all been close to breaking the deadlock.

When Bobo Balde then struck a post with a header, the signs were looking ominous for the Edinburgh side. However, Rudi Skacel quickly silenced a capacity Parkhead crowd moments later when he made the most of Paul Telfer's error in allowing Jankauskas' pass to run through to his keeper Artur Boruc. The Czech midfielder pounced quickly and slotted home his eighth goal of the season after the Pole had blocked his first effort. The jubilant home fans who had thought they were on their way to a straight-forward win were suddenly forced into a drastic reassessment of the challenge facing their team.

Jankauskas then added to their concern when he found himself with the goal in his sights after a great through ball from Sammy Camazzola, although the Lithuanian will have been disappointed at scooping his shot well wide of target.

Banks, deputising for the suspended Gordon, had to look alert to turn behind Alan Thompson's shot as the interval approach. The much-travelled Englishman was making his first start for the club after his debut as a substitute following Gordon's dismissal at Falkirk but he shrugged off the pressure to be one of the stars of the show for the visitors.

Six minutes after the break he threw himself to his left to keep out Telfer's shot and then with 65 minutes on the clock produced a save which had Gordon smiling in approval from the main stand.

Shaun Maloney had only been on the park for two minutes when he sent a dipping, curling free-kick towards the top left-hand corner of Banks' goal but the Hearts keeper showed terrific agility in leaping to his left to somehow claw the ball away.

His heroics almost paid off with the visitors having two excellent chances to go ahead. A colossus in defence, Andy Webster found himself the wrong person in the right place when he was presented with an excellent shooting chance after 67 minutes, his shot effort sailing over the top.

Michal Pospisil was then picked out by a Skacel free-kick but his lack of match sharpness showed as he failed to trouble Boruc with his header.

Chris Sutton and John Hartson both had chances as the game drew to a close but it would have been a travesty had Burley's side not taken something from an exciting match to which they had made a huge contribution.

As Scotland showed against Belarus at Hampden, expectations can have a detrimental effect on teams. Hearts, though, proved they are capable of coping with such extra pressure, much to the delight of their manager.

"I thought we started the game very well and it was against the run of play that Celtic scored from a deflection," said Burley.

"The heads didn't drop after the goal, we didn't panic as there was a long time to go and we got a deserved equaliser. In the second half it could have gone either way but I thought we showed great desire not to be beaten.

"They kept their discipline and their shape as it is never easy going to Parkhead in front of 60,000 fans."

Midfielder Paul Hartley highlighted his team's mental toughness as key to maintaining the gap at the top. He said: "A lot of people were expecting us to slip up against Celtic but we were very confident going into the game. The mental strength of the guys is fantastic.

"The way we bounced back from going a goal down shows how far we have come this season as in previous years we maybe would have got a bit of a doing. But our game plan worked well and we were pretty pleased with a point."

Taken from the Scotsman