SPL: Hearts 2 Celtic 0

Nov 11 2010 Keith Jackson

CELTIC lost a football game at Tynecastle last night. It was a match that Neil Lennon's team did not deserve to win.There, that's the key facts out of the way before we become bogged down in the grimy details of the latest furore that is now doubtless set to engulf our game over the coming days.

The Hoops left Edinburgh convinced they had been wronged by officialdom yet again and so uncontrollable was Neil Lennon's fury that the Celtic boss found himself watching the last 20 minutes away from the dugout on the orders of referee Craig Thomson.

Lennon's anger had been simmering from the moment the whistler correctly refused to award a first-half penalty and booked Gary Hooper for diving instead.

It then reached boiling point when Joe Ledley was red-carded at the start of the second half for a dangerous lunging tackle on Ian Black, the scorer of Hearts' opening goal.

And it spilled over spectacularly when - with Celtic by then 2-0 down following a strike by David Templeton - a linesman failed to spot a hand ball in Hearts' box.

Lennon exploded in rage but this morning, when he goes over the DVD in the cold light of day, he will see that it was not the men in black who beat his team. It was the ones in maroon.

Hearts outplayed Celtic from start to finish and to claim anything else would be quite wrong.

Lennon made three changes to the side that had hit nine against Aberdeen.

Georgios Samaras took over from Niall McGinn, Mark Wilson played right-back and Jos Hooiveld was at centre-back.

Hooiveld had not been trusted to start a match since staggering out of Utrecht with his reputation in tatters but here he was back in the firing line in the usual tinderbox Tynecastle atmosphere.

The Dutchman was directly up against powerful Kevin Kyle, who opened up as if he meant to do some damage.

In fact, all over the pitch Hearts looked half a yard sharper in those typically ferocious opening exchanges. They snapped into tackles and, after winning the ball, moved it around with pace and purpose. Celtic knew from very early on that they were in a match.

Lennon's men began to look rattled, especially after surviving two huge scares in the space of 60 seconds.

First, Rudi Skacel caused chaos with a corner that Fraser Forster failed to claim and Daniel Majstorovic couldn't clear but Ismael Bouzid's shot was deflected wide.

Then a deep cross by Ruben Palazuelos took both Majstorovic and Hooiveld out and derby day hero David Templeton came steaming in at the back post to smash a volley into the ground.

His hurried effort was off target but as the ball cannoned up across the face of goal Stephen Elliott flung himself at it and thudded a header off Forster's bar.

With Celtic under intense pressure, Majstorovic in particular began to creak. He was stupidly booked after only 14 minutes for snarling something at ref Thomson. But the defender's evening was to get worse.

With 27 minutes on the clock, Hearts won their umpteenth free-kick of the night deep inside Celtic territory. Skacel rolled it to the side for Black who took a couple of strides forward before deciding to unload from improbable range.

Black was so far out it ought to have been simple enough for Forster to deal with but Majstorovic intervened, dipping his head into the flight path and sending the ball looping up into the night sky. The keeper didn't have a hope of reacting in time to save and Hearts were in front.

Black was booked for a trip on Samaras that stopped the Greek from getting into full stride but he was not the only Celt struggling to get up to speed.

They were actually seeing a decent amount of the ball but failing to do much with it until, in 33 minutes, they cut Hearts open for the first time. Hooper looked certain to score as he scampered through on to Maloney's clever pass but over-stretched at the crucial moment and then, spotting keeper Marian Kello's huge frame coming towards him, opted to go to ground.

No contact was made and the English striker was booked, although perhaps a little harshly, by referee Thomson.

Down in Celtic's dugout, Lennon reacted furiously but Thomson was right to wave this one away without even going over for a confab with his linesman.

The whistler then booked Ki Sung-Yueng for a trip on the influential Black.

Hearts were well on top but Kello kept them in front when he saved Hooper's close-range shot with his leg.

Anthony Stokes put a header wide from a hanging corner early in the second half but Celtic were finally beginning to find a foothold in the contest. Or were they? Even though they were going forward with a bit more purpose, the back door was left swinging open in the wind. And every time Hearts got at Majstorovic and Hooiveld, Celtic looked in trouble.

Perhaps it was with this in mind that midfielder Ledley rushed into the tackle on the fast-breaking Black that left his side playing the rest of this match with just 10 men. The Welshman - and boss Lennon - felt he had won the ball but he had cleaned Black out on the follow through. It was reckless and unnecessary - Black would hobble off soon after - and it left Thomson with no choice.

With Ledley gone and Lennon still simmering on the sidelines, Hearts promptly went up the pitch and scored the killer second.

It was Shaun Maloney who caused the problem by trying to be over-elaborate in possession.

Needless to say, he lost it and seconds later Skacel was bursting down the left and squaring the ball for Templeton to slam home a side-foot finish. Lennon reacted by replacing Wilson with Cha Du-Ri, Stokes with McGinn and switching to a 4-3-2 but this game was too far gone to be salvaged.

The final insult for Celtic came in 71 minutes when sub Ryan Stevenson appeared to handle the ball inside his own box under pressure from Hooper.

This time ref Thomson did look to his linesman for help but with a shake of the head the penalty claim was dismissed and Lennon was sent into orbit.

Not for the first time, Celtic's manager simply could not control his rage and his mood did not improve when Thomson, on the advice of fourth official Steven McLean, sent him packing.

More bookings followed for Samaras and then Hooiveld as Celtic's discipline began to fray on the pitch also.

Taken from the Daily Record