Cruel ending hands champions Celtic 13-point lead

Celtic (0) 2 Hearts (0) 1

The bookies will stop taking bets on the destination of the Scottish Premier League title after this – Celtic are now 13 points clear of Hearts and 15 in front of Rangers, who meet Dundee United at Tannadice today – yet the paradox is that until the remarkable late turnaround that transformed this match, both sides looked like close title rivals.

Celtic, after a demoralising 3-0 defeat by Benfica in the Champions League, looked like they were suffering from a hangover throughout the first half.

Hearts are the permanent victims of needless disruption and, for the second time in a week, their Friday pre-match briefing had seen the Tynecastle captain, Steven Pressley, appeal to the club's autocratic owner, Vladimir Romanov, to offer a clear line of direction to a team whose coach, Valdas Ivanauskas, is on sick leave suffering from stress.
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Celtic Park was alive with rumour and speculation when it became known that Pressley was not in the Hearts line-up. The Scotland defender, though, was a spectator and confirmed that he had suffered stomach pains and had been advised not to play.

Midway through the half Hearts abruptly found their rhythm with Saulius Mikoliunas and Dievidas Cesnauskis pushing up from the midfield five to aid Andrius Velicka. Suddenly gaps opened across the Celtic back line and Mikoliunas saw one drive blocked by Artur Boruc. The second half brought more of the same – and Velicka chances, all of which he scorned until, with 17 minutes left, he at last broke free of Stephen McManus and shot between Boruc and his far post.

Few could have disputed that Hearts were ahead on merit. Gordon Strachan had to react and his response was to replace the sitting midfield player, Evander Sno, with Jiri Jarosik. It was a calculated risk – Neil Lennon was now exposed in the centre – but it paid dividends when Jarosik met Shunsuke Nakamura's corner kick with a powered header to level. Eduard Malofeev, Hearts' interim coach, now had to make the tough choices and he sent on Takis Fyssas for Bruno Aguiar when it seemed obvious that Velicka, struggling with a knee injury, should come off.

"Bruno told me he was tired and it was time to get him off," Malofeev said, via a translator. "And now I think it might have been better to have kept him on. Gordon Strachan brought Jarosik on and it was lucky – he scored."

The real kick in the teeth for Hearts, though, came in the final seconds when another Nakamura corner kick was driven by McManus against Gordon. The ricochet fell between the goalkeeper and the goal-line but he laid gloves on it only to watch in anguish as the ball squirmed from his grasp and into the net. It was a stunning and undeserved ending for Hearts, but the merciless consequence is the gulf that now separates the sides in the table.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk