Just a perfect day for Hearts

May 01 2006
Hearts 3 - 0 Celtic

Scorers: McManus (7og), Hartley (9), Bednar (63)

When the heat is on, so much for the widely-predicted Hearts collapse. After a season of turmoil at Tynecastle, the fact remains that Gorgie's finest are now just 90 minutes away from securing second place in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague and also, in so doing, Scotland's final Champions League spot.

Following this mauling of Celtic, Hearts may not even need next Sunday's billboard showdown against Rangers to capture their European dream. If they beat Aberdeen at home on Wednesday, the four-point gap will be too great for Alex McLeish's team to overcome, regardless of what happens at Ibrox.

Indeed, the race might not even reach Wednesday, should Hibs beat Rangers at Easter Road tomorrow night.

This was a surreal occasion at Tynecastle yesterday. The Hearts fans, with Vladimir Romanov leading the cheering from the stand, were beside themselves at this performance. A traumatised Celtic were two goals down after nine minutes due to Paul Hartley wreaking fresh havoc, and the visitors ought to have been three down before 15 minutes had elapsed, when Rudi Skacel struck a post.

And the Celtic fans? It is hard to know how to describe their mood, though "subdued" or "downcast" certainly wouldn't do. If there was one thing that half the hordes through from Glasgow wanted more than anything yesterday – even more than a Celtic win – it was Rangers being denied a place in next season's Champions League.

You could not, hand on heart, say there was weeping and wailing at the Celtic end as Hearts piled in their goals. Indeed, in possibly a first this season for any ground in Britain, both sets of supporters were united in a chant of "Let's all laugh at Rangers". Frankly, a number of Celtic fans appeared not to give a monkey's about this outcome.

There is simply no doubting, even amid their political upheaval, the quality of Hearts on the field. Of Hartley's startling renaissance – and there was more of it yesterday – enough has been said already.

Yet in Roman Bednar and Edgaras Jankauskas the Gorgie faithful are feasting on two players of eye-catching technique and movement. The former, in particular, has been a marvellous find.

As for Craig Gordon, a tall, lithe goalkeeper who won the Scottish sportswriters' player of the year award, everything here underscored that judgement. On at least four occasions yesterday he kept Hearts intact, notably with two memorable second-half saves from Maciej Zurawski and Stilian Petrov.

Valdas Ivanauskas, the Hearts coach, was so contented later that he almost looked morose. "It was a very good win," said the lugubrious Lithuanian. "And, I have to say, Paul Hartley in my opinion is the best footballer in Scotland, and one of the best in Europe."

The game was not without the usual niggles. Neil Lennon, who has come to regard a visit to Tynecastle as something akin to Bonfire Night, was caught in a few scraps, and was eventually booked by referee, Alan Freeland, when he and Skacel had a set-to. The Celtic captain believed that the Czech tried to spit on him, though TV images could not clarify it, and the Hearts player specifically denied it.

"There were people around him [Lennon] who were trying to take advantage of the situation and I didn't want to give them that chance," said Gordon Strachan, explaining Lennon's substitution after 65 minutes. "It was all getting a bit silly."

This silliness included Lennon shoving Bruno Aguiar in the chest and once more appearing to be asking for trouble.

It was a thrilling occasion: these days you could almost bottle the passion there is around Tynecastle. Following this momentous win, Hearts players such as Skacel, Bednar and Takis Fyssas roamed around the stadium, their shirts off, taking in the electric atmosphere of a packed stadium. It was a reminder that, for foreign players, the pulse and emotion of the Scottish game can still seem something special.

In Hartley, Hearts have a player ablaze with self-confidence. In a whirlwind of a start it was the Hearts midfielder who twice ripped Celtic apart inside the opening nine minutes, first with a vicious free-kick which came off Stephen McManus and flew past Artur Boruc, and then with a direct free-kick which, with everyone still guddling around, was struck past Boruc and into the top corner.

All this before bums were barely warmed and the match was into its stride. It was an extraordinary opening salvo which said everything about Hearts' devotion to grabbing that Champions League spot.

The reinvention of Hartley as a top-grade Scottish international footballer remains a phenomenon to behold. Can this really be the same footballer who meandered his way as a player with Hibs and St Johnstone with only fleeting – and thus infuriating – effect?

His pace, appetite and pre-emptive instincts on the park have been at the hub of the Hearts revival, and they certainly were yesterday.

The classic Hartley moment of this match was the way he dumbfounded everyone – the referee, the complaining Celtic players, and even his own team-mates – in executing Hearts' second goal after nine minutes. By this point, with Hearts now 2-0 ahead, Celtic were in disarray.

In that ninth minute Stan Varga had clumsily taken down Bednar from behind, 23 yards out. Mr Freeland, the referee, duly gave the free-kick, and with Celtic's players still busy trying to construct their wall under Boruc's direction, Hartley, awash with self-belief, stepped up to thrash the ball past the keeper and inside his left-hand post. It was a dizzying moment for the Hearts fans, who were watching their team play Celtic off the park.

The Parkhead side were lucky not to be three down before 15 minutes had elapsed. Hearts, running at their visitors from a bewildering array of angles, released Skacel through the middle, only for him to crack his shot against Boruc's right-hand post.

Celtic had their chances with both Stephen McManus and Roy Keane failing to score from around six yards in the first half. But Bednar put the game beyond Celtic's clutches when, taking Hartley's pass in a suspiciously offside position, he ran on to sweep the ball past Boruc from 16 yards.

Taken from the Herald