Driver delivers but McManus makes amends

AN AFTERNOON which had started perfectly for Celtic with the unveiling of Jimmy Johnstone's statue and Rangers dropping points at Tannadice ended in anti-climax. Despite a second-half revival, Gordon Strachan's side were relieved to escape from Hearts' clutches with their four-point advantage at the top of the league still intact.

Instead it was Csaba Laszlo's side who left Glasgow disappointed not to have chalked up a sixth win in a row. Easily the better side for the first hour, they missed chances to put the game beyond Celtic's reach.

Strachan is fond of using statistics to deflect criticism of an indifferent result, but even he didn't bother this time. It took his side 73 minutes to trouble Janos Balogh in the Hearts goal, and until McManus wiped out Andy Driver's first-half goal it looked like a second home defeat of the season.
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"They did well to drag themselves back from such a poor performance to give the crowd and themselves hope in the second half," said Strachan of his players.

"We must be happy with a point today, given it was a nothing first 45 minutes."

Worryingly for Celtic, Shaun Maloney pulled a hamstring in the first half and looks likely to miss the Old Firm game on December 27. He could be out for six to eight weeks.

Strachan was unable to put a handle on his side's dreadful opening 45 minutes. "I'm not putting it down to the Champions League, though it might be a thought," he admitted. "We'll have to analyse it."

As usual when the Old Firm drop points, little credit is given to the side which has thwarted them, but Paul Hartley said: "They came here with a good game plan and it work ed. We found it hard to break them down. In the second half we pinned them in and got our reward with a goal. We didn't get beaten - that was the main thing."

Hearts, and especially Balogh, infuriated the crowd with time-wasting in the second half but as Strachan pointed out, his side had 90 minutes to win all three points. The truth is that Hearts, under Laszlo, have become hard to beat and are especially strong under the high ball and at set pieces.

The Hearts manager, never one to give a succinct answer when a torrent of self-consciousness will suffice, said: "If you play at Celtic Park and you get one point you mustn't be unhappy - but I am a bit disappointed. The performance was good and I would like to compliment the players for working so hard in the last few months."

His goalscorer is one of the players tipped to leave Tynecastle next month, but Driver said: "That's up to Hearts. I signed a new contract in the summer and I'm happy. I personally don't want to move - I don't think I'll be going anywhere.

"Some of the boys felt we defended too deep in the second half and that if we'd pushed up we'd have got all three points. But it shows the spirit we've got at the moment that we turned up at Celtic Park expecting to win."

Despite Robbie Neilson being booked after only 53 seconds, the game started in a sedate fashion and only came alive when Hearts went ahead in the 23rd minute. Scott Brown lost possession and was rolled over by Larry Kingston, whose low cross found Driver unmarked at the far post. The scorer later admitted he thought he was offside as he scored easily.

Instead of responding, Celtic allowed Hearts to take a firm grip. Maloney was replaced by Samaras, but even with the extra height Celtic were impotent.

Driver, whose pace was embarrassing Andreas Hinkel, nearly put Hearts two ahead but Boruc pulled off a fine one-handed save.

Bruno Aguiar's set pieces were tormenting the home defence, and when Boruc flapped at a dangerous inswinging corner in the 57th minute the ball fell to Christos Karipidis but his shot crashed into Hinkel's body.

The momentum only began to move in Celtic's direction when Hearts' two most creative players, Kingston and Aguiar, were substituted, Even so, it still took till the 79th minute before the equaliser arrived. Shunsuke Nakamura crossed from the right, Samaras headed it back across the goal, and McManus came to his side's rescue.

Celtic had three clear chances to win the game - two of them in injury time - but although such sucker punches are their trademark it would have been a travesty had any gone in and denied Hearts the draw which was the least they deserved.

Taken from the Sunday Herald