Frail takes heart from good Driver

The Tynecastle outfit had recorded victories and kept clean sheets in their previous three SPL matches under Frail's charge but goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Scott McDonald and Andreas Hinkel ensured the Jambos could not extend that sequence further.

However, while the scoreline may have been emphatic enough, Hearts gave as good as they got for long periods of the game and in the end only the superior finishing of the Parkhead side was the difference between the two teams.

And Frail was pleased with the contribution of the young Englishman, who caused Celtic defender Hinkel all sorts of problems with his pace, albeit without managing to find the cutting edge which could have made all the difference. He said: "I thought Andrew did well, he gave the lad Hinkel problems with his pace and he had a couple of chances.

"The one where he picked up from Palazuelos he should maybe have done better with but he had a good game.

"Palazuelos also played well in terms of keeping the ball and his composure so he has been a good find for us.

"We had a great chance when the score was still 1-0 with Andrew Driver but within a couple of minutes Celtic went back up the park and get the corner that they scored the second goal from and unfortunately that's how it goes in football sometimes."

Despite stressing that he was pleased with the possession his side enjoyed and with their passing at times, Frail was on the other hand also frustrated at his side's poor defending from set pieces Conceding that Celtic's second goal resulted from poor marking on striker McDonald, he added: "I thought that in large spells of the game we played quite well, kept the ball, passed it and created three or four different chances but at the end of the day we conceded two cheap goals. The third one was really irrelevant in the end.

"The second goal especially was frustrating because it was a free header for one of the smallest men on the park in Scott McDonald and it came from a corner which is something we work on in training every week.

"We spoke all week about the threat of Aiden McGeady and his quality yet he is able to send in a good ball and Hesselink gets there before Steve Banks.

"The second one is poor defending from the corner and the third one we should have cleared it better. Robbie Neilson should have been able to clear it, then Goncalves has a lash at it and it falls to Nakamura. After that it goes into McGeady and it's a goal for Hinkel so it was disappointing."

The Jambos were without mdifielders Michael Stewart and Larry Kingston for the trip to Glasgow, the former suffering with a hamstring strain and the Ghana internationalist left out of the squad after returning from the African Cup of Nations 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 though had the better of the early chances and Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura could have handed his side the lead when he curled in a beauty of a free-kick with his left foot after Eggert Jonsson had fouled McDonald.

Steve Banks was left rooted to the spot by the sheer pace of the shot but 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 midfielder Scott Brown charged through the middle of the Hearts defence before sliding the ball at an angle to Hesselink. The big Dutchman knew instantly that the shot wasn't on and instead laid it back for Nakamura but this time his attempt from the edge of the box was palmed away. The Parkhead outfit opened their account with 14 minutes gone and it was a simple strike, McGeady's ball in from the left at just the right height for Hesselink, and he was left with the task of turning it past Banks.

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

The Englishman latched onto it and drilled the ball goalward only for his shot to be palmed away by Boruc and Velicka to ram his effort from the rebound 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 and the little winger beat Hinkel for pace to collect but his final effort was a weak one.

Celtic doubled their advantage six minutes after the restart when Nakamura swung a corner in from Banks' right and diminutive Hoops striker 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 cut 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 Georgios Samaras unleashed a thundering effort that beat Banks but cannoned back off the bottom of the keeper's right-hand post.

Despite the disappointment of the defeat, Frail maintained that he won't allow the heads in the Tynecastle camp to go down: "You don't like coming to Celtic or Rangers and conceding early but I thought th
at after that we passed it around – in fact I thought we were the better side in the first half without having too many real clear chances.

"In terms of composure and possession we did well, but it's all about scoring goals and that's one thing we didn't do.

"But I will make sure that the heads don't go down because we have got a lot of big games coming up and if they continue to work as hard as they have done recently then hopefully we can push into the top six and take it from there." And Celtic manager Gordon Strachan said: "I thought it was a terrific game. We were up against a side who has performed well recently and I think everyone realised that it was a big day for us – the players all reacted fantastically. The link-up play was excellent although we got maybe a bit sticky after the first goal went in but after half time we got it sorted out again and it worked out for us."

Taken from the Scotsman