Careless hands a gift for Celtic

A month ago, the Scotland goalkeeper was denying France as the boots flew around him in a frenetic climax at Hampden Park to preserve the lead that Caldwell’s goal had earned. Three days after the Celtic defender succumbed to disaster in Lisbon with an own goal against Benfica in the Champions League, Gordon joined his international colleague in the hall of shame.

The goalkeeper’s mistake in the last seconds of stoppage time on Saturday decided a remarkable contest and allowed Celtic to go 13 points clear of Heart of Midlothian at the top of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague. It was literally unique, because no one can recall Gordon producing the sort of moments that characterise the rest of his profession.

Great saves are easier to remember, such as the Gordon Banks-like stop that denied Rob Jones a match-winner for Hibernian in the Edinburgh derby recently. Or the save that prevented Shunsuke Nakamura curling in another trademark free kick in this contest, barely a minute after Jiri Jarosik had cancelled out Andrius Velicka’s opener, as Gordon leapt to his right and clawed the ball away from the top corner.

However, when Nakamura swung over a corner in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Caldwell scavenged for the ball before knocking it on to Stephen McManus, whose scuffed shot was pushed into the net by the horrified Gordon as he tried to gather it after it spun off his body.

Celtic Park erupted to acclaim an unlikely resurrection and Gordon was left to consider mere mortality. “It will be another ten years before he makes a mistake like that,” Gordon Strachan said.

No one knew better how Gordon felt than Caldwell. Last Wednesday night, he wanted the ground to open up in the Estadio da Luz and swallow him after the own goal and gift to Nuno Gomes shredded any ambitions Celtic had against Benfica after just 20 minutes.

“I don’t think you can blame Craig,” Caldwell said. “The way Stephen hit it, there was a lot of spin on the ball. Maybe the defender on the line put him off a bit. It’s just one of these things.

“Craig is a fantastic goalkeeper and he made a save from Nakamura which was unbelievable. He’ll be low but that is the way the game is. You have highs and lows. At the moment we’re flying and we’re pretty high. The thing about this team is we never know when we’re beaten. When we went to 1-1, we were still relentless trying to get a winner.”

This fixture has just about eclipsed every other in the Premierleague calendar for drama. There was Roman Bednar’s last-minute winner for Hearts in August and before that, McManus came up with two goals at Tynecastle last New Year’s Day to give Celtic a 3-2 victory and turn the title race on its head. A gap that was seemingly down to one point, suddenly became seven.

On Saturday, there was another six-point swing. The race may be less fraught because of Celtic’s comfort zone but try telling that to anyone in the 58,971 crowd. Hearts were on the verge of embracing their third successive victory over Celtic, a merited one because of the manner in which they shackled the champions, when Jarosik, a hitherto anonymous figure since signing from Chelsea, came off the bench and became an unlikely hero by meeting Nakamura’s corner and planting a header beyond Gordon. Celtic did not stop there. Four minutes of stoppage time were added by Craig Thomson, the referee, to compensate for the time-wasting to which even Gordon contributed. The first 90 seconds of that extra time was given over to treatment for Maruis Zaliukas, the midfield player. All those wasted seconds came back to haunt Hearts.

“It was incredible, turning it round like that,” Caldwell said. “It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had when that goal went in at the end. It was sheer relief. The crowd here play a huge part. You’re chasing a game, but they stick by you.

“I’ve been on the end of it when I came here with Hibernian and it’s difficult to stem the tide. We kept pushing until the very last minute which, I think after Lisbon, is a tremendous achievement.

“We could have gone to seven points but we’ve stretched it to 13. It’s a huge swing and everyone’s really happy. There’s a long, long way to go and a lot of games still to play. As long as we keep showing that sort of character and commitment we’ll keep winning games.

“I thought we were poor by our own standards but the desire not to be beaten was amazing. Even when we got the equaliser some teams might have said ‘we’ll take that’, being as far clear in the title race as we are, but it was unbelievable to get a winner.

Barely a few weeks after becoming a national hero against the French, Caldwell found his status in jeopardy. That mistimed tackle on David Fernandez last Sunday, which ended the Kilmarnock player’s season, metamorphosised into the low point of Lisbon and suddenly his ability was being questioned.

The only person whose faith never wavered is the only one who matters — Strachan. “The manager has been fantastic with me,” Caldwell said. “It could have been easy for him to have a go but he’s stood up for me and when you’ve got a manager who does that, it makes it easier to play the way we did today.

“My family are my biggest supporters but the club, the manager and the players all stuck by me. I was very upset with what happened to David, though I don’t know if it affected me in Portugal.”

Strachan admitted that Celtic were only deserving of a draw but had Saulius Mikoliunas not squandered two chances, one in each half, or Velicka done likewise before profiting from Bruno Aguiar’s hounding of Neil Lennon in the 72nd minute and dancing round McManus to roll a right-foot finish past Artur Boruc, Hearts could have been over the horizon.

“We played ever so well, the tactics were spot on,” Paul Hartley said of the system created by Eduard Malofeev, the caretaker coach. “The formation we played was very attack-minded and we created numerous chances. We just never got that second goal you need when you come here.

“Thirteen points is a big gap. We’ll not give up but it’s going to be extremely difficult. We’ll have to go on a magnificent run to have any chance. If we had won today it would have been back down to seven, that’s the disappointing thing. I think you’ve got to chase Celtic until it’s impossible.”

Celtic (4-4-2): A Boruc 7 — P Telfer 8, G Caldwell 8, S McManus 8, L Naylor 6 — S Nakamura 6, N Lennon 6, E Sno 5 (sub: J Jarosik, 74min), A McGeady 5 (sub: S Maloney, 78) — K Miller 7, M Zurawski 5 (sub: J Vennegoor of Hesselink, 59 4). Substitutes not used: D Marshall, S Pearson, B Balde, D O’Dea. Booked: Lennon.

Heart Of Midlothian (4-1-4-1): C Gordon 7 — R Neilson 7, C Berra 8, I Tall 7, J Goncalves 7 — M Zaliuakas 7 — D Cesnauskis 7 (sub: N Barasa, 45 5), P Hartley 9, B Aguiar 8 (sub: T Fyssas, 80), S Mikoliunas 7 — A Velicka 8. Substitutes not used: S Banks, E Jankauskas, L Wallace, J Brellier, J Mole. Booked: Tall, Neilson.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk