Hearts beat fast as Bednar double beats Celtic

Ewan Murray at Tynecastle
Monday August 7, 2006
The Guardian

Hearts produced an explosive second-half performance yesterday to beat the champions Celtic at Tynecastle where two goals from Roman Bednar secured the three points. Their second successive league win will have Valdas Ivanauskas and his players in good heart at the start of a pivotal week that sees them play AEK Athens at Murrayfield on Wednesday in the first leg of a Champions League final qualifying round tie.

"The result was deserved and very important before the Champions League game," said Ivanauskas. "But we sent our message [to Rangers and Celtic] last season."

Though Celtic fielded only two players who featured in the midweek friendly against Yokohama Marinos in Japan Gordon Strachan's men looked lethargic and a different team from the one who outplayed Kilmarnock last weekend.

The Bulgarian defender Ivaylo Petkov begins a trial period at Parkhead today but Celtic must invest heavily on this evidence if they are to build on last season's runaway Premier League success.

Strachan made the surprising decision to leave out the club captain Neil Lennon from the starting line-up and the 35- year-old's afternoon turned decidedly worse when he stepped off the bench and his back-pass let in Bednar for the Hearts winner.

Strachan was earlier involved in the only interesting aspect of a dull first half when the Celtic manager was sent to the stand along with Hearts' assistant manager John McGlynn following a needless touchline confrontation. Strachan later bemoaned the fact that the match referee refused to discuss the incident after the match but such gripes fail to mask the visiting team's insipid showing.

With the Rangers manager Paul Le Guen looking on, Hearts started the second period in a manner that suggested they were keen to prove why many have tipped them to break the Old Firm's dominance of Scottish football.

Paul Telfer, undoubtedly Celtic's weak link on the right side of defence, allowed Bruno Aguiar time and space to pick out Bednar with a cross and the Czech forward came within inches of opening the scoring.

The 23-year-old did take advantage of Celtic's generosity on the same flank seconds later as he met Michal Pospisil's pass to fire home under Artur Boruc. Celtic were clearly rattled and Boruc prevented further agony with a fine stop from Julien Brellier before Bednar was denied a legitimate second goal by an errant offside flag.

It came as a surprise when Celtic hauled themselves into the game with a Stilian Petrov goal from 15 yards following a sweeping counter-attack.

But the hosts sealed a victory which they unquestionably deserved three minutes from time, as Bednar capitalised on Lennon's wayward pass to score his fourth goal in as many games since the season started. Celtic's attentions now turn to Wednesday night's friendly against Chelsea while Ivanauskas's thoughts are on Champions League progression.

In this sort of form Hearts may have plenty of opportunities to compete among Europe's elite in the coming season.

Man of the match Bruno Aguiar (Hearts)