Celtic 3-0 Hearts

Feb 18 2008 Hugh Keevins Reports

AN open and shut case of identity theft has been detected at Celtic Park. The players who were dismal in December and jittery in January are now continuing with a fantastic February.

But are they the same people? Their names are identical but their mannerisms are entirely different.

The one known as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, for example, was once able to be criticised for being weak and ineffective in the penalty area.

But the man who had his jersey on at the weekend was alert to a cross from Aiden McGeady and brave when he got in front of Hearts keeper Steve Banks to get the opening goal.

Amidfield player signed for £4.5million, Scott Brown, was also able to be accused of having lost all semblances of the outstanding form he displayed when he joined Celtic at first.

Saturday saw a different man as Brown rampaged through the visiting defence leaving a trail of players in his wake.

His accomplice was a player derided by the crowd as "Dozy Donati" and dismissed as being too one-paced for the SPL.

Massimo Donati could have been named man of the match as easily as Brown or McGeady, the eventual recipient of the award.

And so it went on. Now comes the hard part. Everything that took place during a comfortable win over a side who'd been credited with a resurgence in form and a tight defence had to be seen in the context of Wednesday night's tie with Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Scott McDonald got his 24th goal of the season and remains a phenomenon for the small amount of money that was spent to take him from Motherwell.

He has Champions League goals on his CV to maintain his confidence in midweek.

The problems lie elsewhere.

Andreas Hinkel is ineligible for the game after scoring a spectacular goal against Hearts that sealed their fate. But the fullback's lack of pace was endlessly exposed by Andrew Driver and if the young Englishman had possessed a finish on the day the margin of victory would have been less emphatic, if there at all.

Whoever replaces the German at the back will be an emergency measure and that's not what you want against one of the best sides in the world.

Celtic can't compress the game against Barcelona and leave too much space behind the back four otherwise they'll be punished by the lightning pace that is the dominant characteristic of all sides from Europe's top drawer.

But Champions League nights at Celtic Park have a lifeforce of their own. Some of the wins that Martin O'Neill and now Gordon Strachan have had in the past have defied all logic and understanding.

There was even a nostalgic reminder of how Celtic got into this season's tournament when Artur Boruc went to fight with his captain Stephen McManus and had to be dissuaded by Gary Caldwell.

This was a re-run of the keeper squaring up to Lee Naylor when Celtic beat Spartak Moscow in the final qualifying round.

The Pole was the misguided aggressor on Saturday. His kickout to Andrius Velicka could have cost Celtic a needless goal, which was all McManus pointed out. But Boruc was terrific on other occasions, as he was when he saved the penalty that won Celtic the sudden death shootout against the Russians.

You need to take the occasional bouts of eccentricity to get the genius that comes with it from the keeper.

Strachan said: "We feel all right about ourselves. Our crowd knew this was an important game and you could tell that by the reaction when we arrived at the ground in the team coach and the noise when we went out on the park for the kick-off."

Even the fans got in on the identity theft scam. The people who'd started to drop off in numbers were back in their seats and they got a game to make them sit up and pay attention instead of being left motionless and unmoved by what they were watching.

It was a also day for audience participation. The Celtic fans could berate their Edinburgh rivals and turn up the decibel level with each passing goal or ejection from the Hearts end.

Steven Frail was only able to bemoan the suspect defending that cost his side dearly.

He said: "The first goal could have been prevented by two of our players before it got to Vennegoor of Hesselink.

"The second was a header from the smallest player on the park and the third was an irrelevance by the time it arrived.

"We had a real chance to equalise when Andrew was put through one on one with the keeper but we missed and Celtic ran up to the other end of the park and made it 2-0. Then it became a real struggle for us."

Frail's job is about sustaining the fans' interest from now until the end of the season.

Strachan has the altogether more difficult task of keeping Celtic in the title race, winning the Scottish Cup and putting Barcelona out of the Champions League.

The manager will need to do that without Brown, who will serve a one-match ban on Wednesday, and Hinkel.

Once again an unfair level of pressure will be placed on the shoulders of 21-year-old McGeady to mesmerise Barca and lay down the basis of what would still have to be thought of as an unlikely victory over the last side to win a Champions League tie at Celtic Park.

But Celtic specialise in making prophets of doom redundant in that event, so it's probably best to say nothing and prepare to be amazed.

Incidentally, Burnley manager Owen Coyle was in the main stand, having had a long-standing interest in trying to coax Celtic into selling him Derek Riordan.

The former Hibs player couldn't even make a squad of 18 and that sums up a person who has disappeared off the radar at the club who employ him.

Three of the transfer window signings - Georgios Samaras, Barry Robson and Ben Hutchinson, came on and looked the part in their individual ways. But for every beneficiary of the window there's a victim and Riordan would appear to be it.

Predictably, the crowd who used to boo Strachan when he took off Riordan were unaffected by his non-appearance.

They've now got too much to excite them in the present day to concern themselves with the past.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Scott Brown (Celtic)

Taken from the Daily Record