JUST as the winner of tomorrow's Grand National is likely to be untidy at one or two fences, league champions can hardly be expected to be foot perfect on every outing over the course of a 38-match marathon.

If Celtic lurched like a tired steeplechaser over the last obstacle with their single-goal victory over Hearts the other night, it was not enough to halt the impetus that took them to the title.
7 Wonders

In truth, that climactic collision in Glasgow of the top two teams in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague said more about Hearts than it did about the new champions. More precisely, it proved to be an exposé of the reasons why the Tynecastle side are an unbridgeable - and previously unimaginable - 20 points behind the winners with just six games remaining.

Certain truths are difficult to see, far less accept, when rational judgment is distorted by disappointment. John McGlynn, the coach who deputised for the sulking Valdas Ivanauskas at the post-match media conference on Wednesday, was doubtless voicing the resentment of all connected with the club when he dwelled on a penalty kick claim that had been dismissed by referee Dougie McDonald.

He would be echoing his colleagues' and his supporters' umbrage, too, when he resurrected the ordering-off of Takis Fyssas in the match against Celtic in January as a means of underlining the injustices that have been visited on his team on these crucial occasions.

That kind of dudgeon is understandable and it may even be therapeutic for those who see themselves as victims to express it in public. But placing as much emphasis on these matters as Hearts have done since the turn of the year body-swerves issues of much greater significance.

In the three meetings with Celtic, for example, the Edinburgh side have, in the process of drawing one and losing the other two by the minimum margin, shown that they are well balanced rivals in terms of a one-to-one confrontation. But the real difference between them, the one that distinguishes champions from challengers, is the enormous gap that now separates them in the league table.

Conclusions about Hearts' most damaging flaw, a failure to cope with the relentless demands of a long-distance, the capacity for maintaining a high cruising speed throughout, are not difficult to draw when it is remembered that they went into their home match with Celtic on New Year's Day just four points adrift of the leaders.

No amount of wailing or gnashing of teeth over perceived injustices can deflect from the fact that, in the 12 matches since, they have conceded 18 points. In the same period, Celtic have dropped just two. Setting aside their two narrow defeats by Gordon Strachan's team, losing at home to Aberdeen and to Kilmarnock away and drawing with Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Rangers - having led the Ibrox side at Tynecastle - is not championship-winning form.

Nor is the shocking statistic that only once since last October have they achieved back-to-back league victories. These were against Motherwell (home) and Livingston (away) at the end of February and the beginning of March.

Whatever anyone may feel about the swingeing actions of Vladimir Romanov - at times, he seems as ruthless in disposing of employees who offend him as a James Bond villain - the Hearts owner does seem to have recognised the fundamental weakness that has now put their prospects of securing a place in next season's Champions League in jeopardy.

An impulse simply to take the executioner's axe to managers and executives may not be the most efficacious cure, but Romanov's frustration does seem at times to be justified by events on the field of play.

Like thousands of others, he will have wondered how Hearts could leave Celtic Park pointless two nights ago, having gained control of the 85 minutes of the match that remained after John Hartson had given the home side the lead.

Emotional he may be, but Romanov will be sufficiently dispassionate and astute to recognise that his players basically did not see the assignment through. He will have noted, also, that Celtic, despite being beset by the anxieties that often overtake teams on the final, tantalising approach to the big prize, held their nerve and their discipline to complete their mission.

The vital element missing from Hearts' collective make-up is not necessarily lost without trace. The visual evidence so far suggests that what they require is an exceptional manager. Player for player, the Tynecastle side have shown themselves the equal of any and the master of most with numerous sound performances through the season, not least on their irresistible march to the final of the Tennent's Scottish Cup.

The great managers have all shared a supreme, but indefinable talent for giving players transfusions of their own irrepressible spirit, combativeness and unremitting tenacity. Whether or not George Burley would have made that crucial difference will remain a matter for speculation.

Celtic, however, appear to have found a worthy successor to Martin O'Neill. Gordon Strachan would bridle at comparisons with any of the game's heroic managerial figures, but his contribution to the Parkhead side's rehabilitation after the vicissitudes of last season cannot be overstated.

As he said himself at the moment of triumph on Wednesday, he is not making any claims of greatness on behalf of his team. They have distinguished themselves thus far only in domestic football and more rigorous tests lie ahead.

But he has already fulfilled several of the criteria by which men in his position are measured. These include an eye for a player - Maciej Zurawski, Shunsuke Nakamura - and, with such examples as Shaun Maloney, Stephen McManus and even the veteran Neil Lennon, a precious gift for maximising the abilities of players already on the books.

Taken from the Scotsman