Title deeds handed over by Gordon

Celtic 2 / Hearts 1
Michael Grant at Celtic Park

HUNDREDS of goals are scored in a football season and the overwhelming majority are quickly forgotten. Others immediately look momentous, even those which are as untidy as an unkempt garden.

The moment the ball squirted off Craig Gordon’s hands and somehow squeezed inside his own post deep in stoppage time here, giving Celtic a winner an extraordinary climax to a pivotal fixture, there was a metaphorical application of green and white ribbons to the 2007 SPL championship trophy.

A Celtic win over Hearts had the look of a title- defining match for the second time in 2006. On January 1, Hearts took the lead at Tynecastle only for Celtic to recover and win. It was the campaign’s telling blow. Yesterday the script was repeated at Parkhead, with the added thrill of the drama being crammed into the final 17 minutes, which harboured all three goals.

Celtic were losing with 86 minutes on the clock and victorious in their dressing room 10 minutes later. They would have been breathless, but then again there is hardly any oxygen left for anyone now in the title race.

The biggest news story of the day was that Gordon had made a mistake. They are as rare as championship presentations, but when Shunsuke Nakamura’s corner was turned towards goal by Stephen McManus the goalkeeper’s moment of misjudgement was fatal. He seemed to believe he could catch the ball as it spun awkwardly towards the post, but could not do so and saw it squeeze into the net between the post and Robbie Neilson. When the final whistle went seconds later he momentarily pulled up his jersey to cover part of his face.

Is the championship over? That bookmaker with an eye for the headlines, Paddy Power, was honouring his pledge to pay out last night to anyone who had bet on Celtic to win the league. That has become a familiar publicity stunt, but Celtic’s 13-point advantage this morning does have an unmistakable look of being insurmountable. The discouraging fact for the rest is that Celtic currently look incapable of haemorrhaging points at the rate which will be necessary for Hearts or Rangers to catch them up.

It is psychologically distressing, too, for their rivals to see them come from behind and win, which they did at Kilmarnock last weekend and again to even more deadly effect yesterday.

They are the best side in Scotland but were second best on their own pitch. It was a merciless result for a Hearts side which, in a generally tight game, created most of the goalscoring chances only to concede twice in the brief period of the game in which Celtic pinned them back.

Celtic had lacked the midfield drive or imagination to find a way through Hearts’ defensive, counter-attacking formation and struggled to supply their forwards. But when Andrius Velicka scored in the 73rd minute Celtic found an urgency and tempo to their play which had previously been absent, pinning Hearts back and leaving their animated current head coach, Eduard Malofeev, kicking himself for the ineffectiveness of his own substitutions.

He had sensed that his most influential player, Bruno Aguiar, was tiring with 10 minutes to go and withdrew him to bring on Takis Fyssas. The switch altered Hearts’ balance, especially given that their holding player, Marius Zalukas remained on the field despite apparently struggling with an injury.

“Bruno was tired and it was time to take him off,” said Malofeev. “But now, after the game, I am thinking that I shouldn’t have.”

Hearts had travelled along the M8 in pursuit of their third consecutive league victory over Celtic, emboldened by the knowledge that they have become a match for the Old Firm in Edinburgh and are still the only team to beat Celtic in the league in 2006. But having been meek when surrendering to Rangers at Ibrox earlier in the season, they needed to assert themselves with a substantial performance in Glasgow. They did so, but it felt like a paltry consolation at the end.

After half an hour of midfield congestion Hearts began to grow and startled Celtic with two chances within a minute. Velicka was on his own in the Hearts’ attack but Malofeev’s system relied on supporting runs from his midfielders and when the forward played in Saulius Mikoliunas his fellow Lithuanian was through. He was hesitant in getting the ball under control, though, and had to beat backtracking defenders before forcing Boruc to save his low shot.

Davidius Cesnauskis was unable to convert the rebound but within seconds the right winger was in behind left-back Lee Naylor and cutting the ball back for Velicka. It was an even finer chance than the first, but Velicka’s scuffed finish was dreadful and the ball squirted across goal and wide. The opportunities were squandered, but Hearts still took something from them. From those moments there was a nervousness about the Celtic defence whenever Hearts attacked them on the wings.

The periodic threats to the Celtic goal did not amount to the savaging given by Benfica, though, and it was still genuinely stunning to witness Hearts taking the lead. Telfer’s pass to Neil Lennon was intercepted by Aguair and he played the ball through for Velicka. There was much for the forward still to do, but his single-mindedness was as impressive as his technique as he ran at Celtic’s central defenders and pulled to the right of McManus before steadying himself to pull a low shot which beat Boruc at his right-hand post. Velicka’s momentum took him careering into the corner in front of the wedge of jubilant travelling supporters.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink returned from the bench after missing four matches, but it was Gordon Strachan’s other substitute, Jiri Jarosik, who equalised, bullying Ibrahim Tall to connect with a scoring header from Nakamura’s corner. Celtic’s late charge was irresistible, giving them a winner dealt by the safest hands in the country.

Taken from the Sunday Herald