Hearts 1-2 Celtic: Hard-working Hearts denied by fine Zhi Zheng volley

Published Date: 10 May 2010
By Stuart Bathgate
IF THIS game was meaningless, someone must have forgotten to tell the players. Although nothing was at stake in terms of league position, both teams played as though this were the first game of next season rather than the last outing of this one.
Both Hearts and Celtic were without key personnel, but the standard of play did not noticeably suffer, with a hotly contested match eventually ending in an eighth consecutive league win under Neil Lennon for the visiting side.

The caretaker manager had made four changes from the team which beat Rangers in midweek. Landry Nguemo, Celtic's most impressive performer, was suspended, Diomansy Kamara and Lee Naylor were injured, and goalkeeper Artur Boruc was suspended.

Lee Wallace was missing from the Hearts defence after failing a fitness test, Ruben Palazuelos was out following a knee operation, and Ian Black and Suso Santana were rested as they were one game away from being suspended for the start of next season. Ryan Stevenson, who began the game in the same position, picked up a yellow card in the second-half which means he will join Eggert Jonsson and Ismael Bouzid on the sidelines for the start of the 2010-11 campaign.

Although Mark Wilson competed well alongside Scott Brown in the middle, Celtic looked to be feeling the absence of Nguemo in the opening 20 minutes as they took some time to settle into a discernible rhythm. Indeed, neither team was able to construct much in the way of goalscoring chances during that spell, and when the opening goal arrived almost exactly midway through the half it was produced by two Hearts errors.

The first came when Craig Thomson lost possession to Edson Braafheid down the right. The Dutch international passed to Aiden McGeady, whose through ball to Robbie Keane should have been cut out by Marius Zaliukas, but the defender, appearing off balance, could only knock the ball onwards into the path of the striker. Straight through on Jamie MacDonald, Keane calmly shot low past the goalkeeper for his 16th goal in 19 appearances for his club.

Minutes later Marc-Antoine Fortune was not far off the mark after a well-worked free-kick, but from then until half-time Hearts enjoyed their best spell of the game, scoring once and coming desperately close to getting a second. The near thing was a header from David Obua which was bound for the top right-hand corner of the goal until Zaluska got there just in time to keep it out. The goal followed almost immediately. Craig Thomson drove in a low free-kick from the right, and Zaliukas lost his marker and met it on the volley from the edge of the six-yard box.

Hearts had another chance before the break when Obua was not too far off target with a backwards header from another Craig Thomson cross, and they could also have taken a lead within minutes of the restart when David Templeton dragged a shot wide. But Celtic were just as dangerous in those opening stages of the second period, with Keane shooting wide from 25 yards out.

In the 52nd minute Obua conceded a free-kick just a yard outside his own box when he lifted a foot too high in a tussle with Wilson. Braafheid took the award, found the left corner of the net, and turned away to celebrate after seeing MacDonald just fail to reach it. Unfortunately for the Celtic player, he had not noticed that the referee's hand had remained raised throughout, indicating an indirect free-kick.

Although no goal resulted from it, the incident was a sign that Celtic were getting on top, and not long after it they took the lead thanks to an excellent piece of finishing from Zhi Zheng. Zaliukas again played an unwitting part in the goal, this time by getting a head to a Keane cross from the left which would probably have drifted harmlessly wide. Zhi brought the ball under control with one touch of has right foot, then swivelled and shot home with his left.

Hearts tried their utmost to get back on level terms a second time in the half-hour that remained, but they found it increasingly difficult to break out of their own half in numbers. McGeady was giving them more and more trouble on the left wing, and there was always a danger that the more men the home side committed to attack, the more space would be left at the back.

A Craig Thomson shot was blocked on the edge of the six-yard box by Braafheid, then Stevenson headed over, but Celtic gave as good as they got in the closing stages and deserved to depart with another three points.

Taken from the Scotsman