No luck for Hearts at Parkhead

Celtic 3, Hearts 0
HEARTS were left cursing their bad luck and poor finishing as they passed up a string of chances in a 3-0 defeat at Parkhead.
Andrius Velicka, Andrew Driver and Audrius Ksanavicius all spurned glorious opportunities after Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink had bagged an early opener for the Parkhead side.

But Scott McDonald and Andrius Hinkel both netter after the break to make sure of the spoils for Gordon Strachan's side.

Hearts were without midfielder Michael Stewart, who was ruled out by a hamstring injury, and Larry Kingston was not involved in the squad after returning from the African Cup of Nationa with a foot injury.

However striker Andrius Velicka, who scored twice in Hearts' last visit to Parkhead in the CIS Cup back in October, was on from the start.

The home side could have edged in front after only seven minutes when Eggert Jonsson was judged to have fouled Scott McDonald. Up stepped Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura who curled in a beauty of a free-kick with his left foot but, with Steve Banks rooted to the spot, the ball came back off the keeper's left-hand upright and when it was headed back in towards goal, the Hearts stopper was able to collect.

Three minutes later Celtic broke forward again, this time when former Hibs midfielkder Scott Brown ran straight through the middle of the Hearts defence before sliding the ball at an angle to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The big Dutchman knew the shot wasn't on and instead laid it back for Nakamura but this time his shot from the edge of the box was palmed away.

The Parkhead outfit did take the lead with 14 minutes gone and it was a ismple strike, Aiden McGeadt's ball in from the left at just the right height for Hesselink, who rose at the near post to head beyond Banks.

Andy Driver did well with just over 20 minutes gone to cut the ball back for Ksanavicius whose cross-come shot had Boruc scrambling back to his goal to concede a corner that eventually came to nothing.

With just over half an hour gone Hearts fans thought they had levelled when Ksanavicius produced a lovely ball over the top and on a n angle to beat the Celitc defence and pick out Driver, who was racing down the left.

The Englishman latched onto it, ponly for his shot to be palmed away by Boruc and Velicka could only ram his effort into the side netting.

After the break Hearts had a great chance to level when Ruben Palazuelos sent a long ball upfield for Driver to chase. The little winger beat Hinkel for pace and ran onto the ball but his final effort was a weak one.

And Celtic double
d their advantage in 51 minutres when Nakamura swung a corner in from Banks' right and McDonald had all the time and space in the World to head it home.

Hearts brought Saul Mikoliunas on for Deividas Cesnauskis with 25 minutes left and the Lithuanian winger gave the Jambos an added threat but they could still not make the breakthrough.

And Celtic made sure of the points with 15 minutes left when a clever flick from McGeady caught out Jonsson, leaving Hinkel to drill the ball low into the net with his right foot.

In the dying minutes Celtic handed Ben Hutchison his debut, bringing him on to replace goalscorer McDonald and the Glasgow side missed out on a spectacular fourth by just a matter of inches when Samoras unleashed a thundering effort that beat Banks but cannoned back off the bottom of the keeper's right-hand post.

Referee: Dougie McDonald.
Attendance: 56,738

Taken from the Scotsman