McManus saves 'awful' Celtic from Boruc's ongoing frailty

Celtic 1 Heart of Midlothian 1

By Nick Harris at Celtic Park

Celtic's manager, Gordon Strachan, said after this fortunate result that he would prefer not to list all the things his side failed to achieve in the first half because it would take too long. "It was a poor half for us," he said. "The worst performance for a long, long time." He said that it was not the first time Celtic had been affected by a Champions League game, they beat Villarreal 2-0 in midweek, but did not use that as an excuse. "We were poor, I'll leave it at that," he added.

He was right. In the first 45 minutes his team's passing was woeful and creativity absent. Hearts thoroughly deserved their 1-0 lead at half-time, achieved when the industrious Andrew Driver netted after one of many diagonal balls from Laryea Kingston. That pair caused the hosts trouble time and again.

"They were spirited and we must be happy with a point after that first half," Strachan added. Celtic's equaliser was scored by Stephen McManus, supplied by Georgios Samaras's head-on following Shunsuke Nakamura's cross. It was a rare piece of connected play from Celtic, who also suffered when Shaun Maloney was substituted in the first half with what Strachan says is a "hamstring problem". Strachan's counterpart, Csaba Laszlo, said he was "a bit disappointed" with just one point but accepted that leaving here with anything at all should be pleasing. The half-Hungarian, half-German coach deserves credit for some fine recent results, five wins in a row before yesterday, in tough circumstances. The club remains in financial trouble, with wages late more than once this season, some bonuses still outstanding, and question marks over the futures of players and management staff alike.

A January sell-off has been mooted to clear some of the debts. Bolton sent a scout yesterday to watch the Scotland defender, Christophe Berra, while Driver and Kingston will have done themselves no harm and could attract Championship interest, as could midfielder Bruno Aguiar.

Before Driver's opener, he had already needed close attention from his former Tynecastle team-mate, Paul Hartley, to steer his runs away from goal. The visitors' Marius Zaliukas had also shot powerfully, marginally over the crossbar.

The goal highlighted again the recent vulnerability of Celtic's Polish goalkeeper, Artur Boruc, who stood stock still instead of reacting to Driver's surge, and could only fall backwards as the striker tucked the ball past him. Boruc did make one terrific save later in the first half, from Driver, who unleashed a shot under pressure from Scott Brown. Boruc dived to his left and pushed the ball away for a corner. That almost led to a second goal but Ruben Palazuelos's downward header hit Kingston.

Driver continued to press on in the second half but the hosts at least started to get forward with the ball, albeit on route one.

Samaras was the obvious target, and Nakamura found him late on, allowing the knock-on assist that McManus converted to save Celtic's blushes. Or some of them, anyway.

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