Let’s make one thing clear first – Hearts were good value for all three points today. Any other result would only have served to paper over the glaring cracks in the Celtic selection and tactics. Equally, it should be pointed out that this is NOT a good Hearts team. The only reason they deservedly won was because they wanted it more today. Nobody there had any great ability and there’s nobody that stood out, bar their goalscorer, as being someone I would like to see in a hooped shirt. But their whole team hassled and harried as a team, made a nuisance of themselves at every occasion, were tougher into the tackle, won the 50-50s, and never allowed Celtic time to settle on the ball.

And so to begin the post-mortem. The omens were bad from the start, and Mo Camara should be rightly aggrieved at being inexplicably dropped for teacher’s pet Paul Telfer. To dismantle a back four that had played in a 4-1 win the previous weekend simply makes no rational or logical sense. Forcing Wilson onto his weaker side to play on the flank with a player he hasn’t had a great deal of experience with in McGeady, and away from Nakamura, whilst similarly taking away the pace and, admit it, sharp crossing of Camara was doomed to failure. And, trust me, I’m no Camara fan. I just can’t understand a rational reason for this change. But isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?

The first half was an entirely dull affair. Celtic were sluggish but adequate to cope with a Hearts team that was full of pace and bluster but little cutting edge. A waterlogged section of the Rangers 2nd string’s pitch threatened to make matters even harder for Telfer and Nakamura on the right, whilst Petrov and Jarosik looked surprisingly slow at shifting the ball back to front, entirely in contrast with the previous weekend. If Strachan thought he was onto ‘a good thing’ by keeping the same midfield from last weekend, why change the defence? Lennon had, rightly, been unable to regain his place so, again, why had Telfer? Kenny Miller, a surprise inclusion, was clearly still short of a couple of yards of pace and when that makes up the majority of your game he was never going to be more than a passenger and Zurawski was all effort but no cutting edge. A couple of half-chances to Petrov and Jarosik ended a very, very dull first half. The only point of interest was Strachan’s ‘sending off’ for remonstrating with Heart’s John McGlynn after Brellier had inexplicably crashed to the turf clutching his face. Both were sent to the stands on the advice of the fourth official, and no doubt an appeal is imminent.

And so to when it all went horribly, horribly wrong. It took only four second-half minutes for the Celtic back line to commit hara-kiri, Telfer sloppily failing to make a telegraphed pass five yards to Nakamura and the whole back line seemingly too frightened to tackle the onrushing Roman Bednar who had an age to pass a low, accurate drive past Boruc’s despairing hands.

Celtic’s reaction? Well, there wasn’t one. Hearts dominated in a way they hadn’t been allowed to in the first half, winning every ball and forcing their way towards the Celtic goal time and again. A combination of Hearts’ hesitancy, luck and Boruc kept the score at 1-0 until the best and most incisive move of the match. From a Hearts corner Zurawski broke forward on the right and fed Nakamura in the centle. Marching over the half-way line he spread the ball left again to Miller who, with the deftest of touches, knocked the ball onto McGeady. Aiden ran to the edge of the Hearts 18 yard box, squared the ball to Petrov who slammed the ball hard and high into the top left corner. Unstoppable.

This knocked the stuffing out of Hearts in a big way, Bednar having had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out for offside minutes earlier and, with the clearly unfit Nakamura and Miller replaced by Pearson and Lennon respectively, Celtic began to assert control over the midfield having pushed Petrov up alongside Zurawski. Lennon, to be fair, had been missed. Jarosik apparently cannot play the same role of holding midfielder as well, and the club captain lent some composure to a rocking midfield. Unfortunately, with Petrov keen to blast every chance that fell his way from a full 30 yards, Celtic were never going to score. But then neither were Hearts until…

Neil Lennon, experienced club captain and leader of men, picks the ball up on the right side of the half way line and, instead of turning a looking for a forward pass, seemed content to hoof the ball back to Artur Boruc. Except Boruc wasn’t wearing maroon. Bednar was. Grateful for the hooped profligacy he took a couple of touches, evaded the outstretched Boruc, and slotted the winner home.

Hearts went on to rattle the bar in the 90th minute, and to be fair the best team won on the day. Celtic looked tired, sloppy and lacked any real cutting edge. We have proved comprehensively that a team of no real ability but a willingness to hassle and harry will cause us problems. When does the Champions League start?

HEARTS (4-4-2) Gordon; Tall (Neilson 24), Pressley, Berra, Wallace; Mikoliunas, Brellier, Aguiar, McCann (Cesnauskis 62) ; Pospisil (Makela 83), Bednar
Subs: Banks, Beslija, Elliot Karapidis

CELTIC (4-4-2) Boruc; Telfer, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson; Nakamura (Pearson 70), Petrov, Jarosik, McGeady; Zurawski, Miller (Lennon 67)
Subs: McGovern, Riordan, Wallace, O’Dea, Sno