Hearts 2 - 1 Celtic: Spirited Hearts fight back to punish profligate Celtic

By Stuart Bathgate
YOU do not have to scrutinise Hearts' fixture list for long before concluding that this was their best result of the season so far. They have still no more than a handful of victories to their name, and the only one which was arguably more rousing than this was the second-leg Europa League win over a Dinamo Zagreb side who had put the tie beyond doubt in the first leg.

But the application of that 'best-so-far' tag to yesterday's hard-fought victory should not be regarded as damning it with faint praise. Given the number of false dawns witnessed in the Gorgie skies over recent months it would be an error to extrapolate too much too quickly from a single match, yet there were certainly some aspects of the win to give Csaba Laszlo and his team some grounds for hope.

Most importantly, they produced a spirited performance which allowed them to fight back from a goal down. Although still lacking in confidence at times, notably for long stretches of the second half, they displayed a resilience and combativeness which enabled them to snatch the lead and then hold on to it in a frenetic finale.

Certainly, Hearts were fortunate that Celtic's finishing was often woeful, but they are entitled to feel they were due more than a little of the good luck which came their way.

Some observers will have regarded the penalty from which they equalised – and for conceding which Gary Caldwell was sent off – to have been an example of that luck, but there was nothing at all fortuitous about the sublimely delivered cross by David Templeton from which Ismael Bouzid headed in the winner.

It should also be noted that Saturday's results had put some extra pressure on Hearts, who began the game a mere two points above the relegation zone. They now find themselves just one point below the top six, and suddenly their hopes of salvaging something from the season do not look so far-fetched.

Celtic, by contrast, have seen their own ambitions suffer over the past two weekends. When they beat Motherwell in the early kick-off match nine days ago, the result sent them five points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL. But Rangers have won three times since then, and today Celtic find themselves four points behind their Glasgow rivals, and only one ahead of third-placed Hibernian. Such a position looked highly improbable after 20 minutes of this match, when Georgios Samaras gave the visitors the lead. A Barry Robson corner from the right had found Scott McDonald unmarked at the far post, and the Australian's header came off the woodwork and rebounded to Samaras, who poked home from a few yards out.

McDonald, Caldwell and Samaras himself had all spurned chances before that goal, and, for all that Hearts were competing gamely, a relatively straightforward away win looked a reasonable bet at that point. Instead, ten minutes later, the game was back in the balance when Celtic lost a goal and a man.

The penalty was given when Caldwell made contact with Jamie Mole in the box; the red card was shown because the Hearts striker would otherwise have had a goal-scoring opportunity. Television replays from several angles may not have conclusively shown that the centre-back tripped his opponent, but what was not debatable from Celtic's point of view was that the situation should not have arisen. A long diagonal pass from Eggert Jonsson towards the right wing was cut out by Danny Fox and then headed infield towards Glenn Loovens by Aiden McGeady. Loovens allowed the ball to run past him and into the path of Mole, placing Caldwell in a precarious position from which he was unable to extricate himself.

The spot-kick was taken by Michael Stewart, who had scored the only goal of the game from a penalty when the sides last met in the Co-operative Insurance Cup back in October. Stewart calmly stroked the ball just inside Artur Boruc's right-hand post as the goalkeeper dived to his left, and Hearts were back in the match.

Tony Mowbray reorganised his side by bringing Stephen McManus on into central defence and taking off Marc Crosas, with Samaras dropping back when required to help out his midfield. After the rest of the first-half passed off almost without further incident, Celtic began the second half in determined mood, and, giving the impression of being the team with the extra man, should have regained the lead before the hour-mark had been reached. First the ever-dangerous McGeady saw a shot come back off the post after getting the better of Marian Kello in the Hearts goal. Minutes later Samaras shot wide and then McGeady chipped over and another good opportunity was passed up as Celtic tried hard to make their domination tell.

Those were all decent efforts, but the same description could not be applied to Samaras' shot when McDonald cut the ball back to him, having kept the ball in play on the goal-line and taken it round Kello. Looking up and seeing the goal at his mercy, the Greek took the pass first time and sidefooted it over the bar with the goalmouth unguarded.

The profligacy of the miss became all the more glaring quarter of an hour later when Hearts, who had struggled even to create chances, far less finish them off, took the lead. A delivery from the left by Craig Thomson was cleared out of the box, but Hearts then fed the ball to Templeton on the right. Templeton's long, perfectly weighted cross sailed over a sea of heads all the way to Bouzid at the back post, and the unmarked Algerian dived in to head home powerfully past goalkeeper Boruc.

Hearts had to weather the storm after that as Celtic strove to save a point. Thomson cleared a Loovens header off his own line with five minutes to play, and then Kello was relieved to collect a header from substitute Marc Antoine Fortuné which came back off the post.

It was an unsettling end to the game for the Edinburgh team, but the result should have a reassuring effect on them nonetheless.

MAN OF THE MATCH
Aiden McGeady (Celtic)

Although he was on the losing side, the midfielder was the most impressive player by some way over the course of the 90 minutes. Looking threatening almost every time he gained possession, he laid on the first scoring chance of the game for Scott McDonald, and on another day would have ended up with several assists to his name.

Taken from the Scotsman