Celtic ease back to top of SPL

Ewing Grahame

Scotland manager George Burley attended this fixture on Sunday and, as he assessed his international players, he must also have reflected on the steep decline of his former club.

When he was sacked by Vladimir Romanov, in October 2005, Hearts had just enjoyed their best start to a league campaign in their history.

Ten matches in, they were clear at the top of the table, unbeaten and with 26 points to their name. After 11 fixtures of this campaign, the comparisons are unflattering.

With only one victory since August, Csaba Laszlo's side are stuck on 14 points and this latest defeat came on the same day that it was revealed that they have the worst credit rating all the clubs in the SPL.

None of which should detract from a decent Celtic performance which restored their three-point lead over Rangers, who will resume pole position with a victory at home to Dundee United on Tuesday evening.

One fears for Hearts, however. Their strikers have scored one goal between them this season and it took them until five minutes from time before they registered their first effort on target, a long-range drive from Jamie Mole which Artur Boruc saved comfortably.

Tynecastle provides, arguably, the best atmosphere of any ground in Scotland but the passion generated by the supporters was not reflected on the pitch.

What made the defeat harder to bear for those fans was that the match was effectively over after 20 minutes. By then they were two goals adrift and Hearts haven't scored three times in one match since the opening day of the season.

They started with Christian Nade as their lone striker, a ploy which failed dismally, largely due to his lack of mobility and inability to hold the ball up.

Hearts also contributed to their own downfall at the opening goal. Goalkeeper Jan Balogh elected to punch, rather than catch, an Andreas Hinkel free-kick but didn't gain enough distance on it and Shaun Maloney displayed great composure to volley in from 30 yards. "It was like a knife to my heart," Laszlo said. "Jan must punch the ball out to the wing rather than straight down the middle."

Celtic's second came when the home defence failed to deal with a Paul Hartley corner. Barry Robson helped it on, Scott McDonald saw his header pushed against the post by Balogh and Gary Caldwell forced the rebound home from point-blank range.

TV replays showed that Caldwell had inadvertently handled before scoring but no blame was attached to referee Craig Thomson, whose view was obscured.

Nor was there any suggestion that allowing the goal to stand was in any way significant: if Celtic had needed another goal they would surely have found one.

As it was, they should have scored again in the 51st minute when Marius Zaliukas was dismissed for hauling back Scott McDonald as both players chased Cillian Sheridan's knock-on.

It was a needless foul because McDonald lacks the pace required to reach the ball but Hartley, who enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate from the spot as a Hearts player, put the penalty wide of Balogh's right-hand post.

Barry Robson should have been awarded another penalty kick midway through the second half when he was brought down by Christophe Berra but his appeals fell on deaf ears.

With Manchester United due at Parkhead on Wednesday, Gordon Strachan rested Aiden McGeady and Shunsuke Nakamura and was reasonably pleased with his players' contributions.

"We started with determination," he said. "We knew it would be physical – it's Land of the Giants here – " but we got the goals we needed and then we moved down a couple of gears.

"I'd be nitpicking if I complained about our performance in the last 20 minutes, though, because the game was finished by then. Of course, it will be different against United because they are the best team in the world."

Strachan was abused by a Hearts supporter from one of the corporate lounges as he was being interviewed in the corridor at Tynecastle. A club spokesman said: "An investigation is under way and appropriate action will be taken." How their supporters must wish the same could be said of their team.

Hearts (4-5-1): Balogh; Jonsson, Zaliukas, Berra, Wallace; Cesnauskis (Mikoliunas 35), Karipidis, Stewart, Aguiar (Palazuelos 79), Driver; Nade (Mole 59).
Subs: MacDonald (g), Makela, Thomson, Ksanavicius.
Sent off: Zaliukas.
Celtic (4-4-2): Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson; S Brown, Hartley, Robson (Donati 78), Maloney (McGeady 67); McDonald (McCourt 90), Sheridan.
Subs: M Brown (g), Nakamura, O'Dea, Caddis.
Booked: Hartley.
Referee: Craig Thomson.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk