Under Pressure

HEARTS 2-0 CELTIC

Scottish Premier League
Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh
Sunday 2 October 2011

For the third time already this season, 10 man Celtic succumbed to another damaging defeat to a well organised yet somewhat ordinary Hearts side in a match that in hindsight, the Celtic faithful will wish had not passed the morning pitch inspection.

Make no bones about it; for perhaps the first time in his reign, manager Neil Lennon is under real pressure. Celtic lie third in the SPL, ten points behind rivals Rangers after 9 games. Few among the Celtic support dared imagine such a situation arising at the end of last season; despite losing the league by a single point, optimism was high as we looked forward to seeing the young, dynamic side that terrorized the SPL in the second half of last season and won the Scottish Cup, hit the ground running for the new season.

The question on every Celtic fans lip's now is "where the hell has that team gone?"

Celtic went into this game knowing that a win was essential to cut the 10 point gap that Rangers have opened up at this early point of the season. Trips to Tynecastle are always some of the hardest games we play all season, never mind when three first choice midfielders in Beram Kayal, Joe Ledley and Scott Brown are ruled out through injury. It did seem that Celtic missed the driving force of these three as the team suffered from a slow start and did not start playing until Hearts had already forced Fraser Forster into a smart save and Marius Zaliuskas had rattled the post.

Then on the twenty minute mark, Celtic should have been in front. A wonderful cross from James Forrest found Mohamed Bangura unmarked at the back post, yet his first time header was saved by Jamie MacDonald. How bad a miss it was became abundantly clear in the replays, which even Neil Lennon, hardly famed for his goal scoring exploits, called "a dolly".

Badr El Kaddouri tussles with Rudi Skacel

From the resulting corner, Kris Commons, making a rare start and looking something like his old self, rattled in a shot that MacDonald did well to turn around his post for another corner. Commons again tested MacDonald by thundering in a trademark long range effort; this after Forster had made a stunning save from a Danny Grainger free kick.

The teams returned to the field after the break with Celtic starting well. Indeed, as Hearts began to sit deeper and deeper, Celtic seemed to be finally taking control of the match and it seemed that a goal was only a matter of time.

Unfortunately, the goal came for Hearts. Very much against the run of play, a Hearts throw in was booted up into the air towards the box by Jamie Hamill, giving any one of three Celtic defenders the chance to take control of the situation and clear their lines. Of course this is Celtic we are talking about; not only was David Templeton able to take the ball down unchallenged, he was able to lay it off to the unmarked Skacel who blasted an unstoppable shot past the helpless Forster.

After this, the worryingly ineffective Bangura was replaced by Anthony Stokes, yet again overlooked for a start in a 'big' game. However, within five minutes, it was effectively game over.

Kris Commons is sent for the second consecutive time at Tynecastle

Having lost the ball in midfield, Commons lunged into a tackle against Mrowiec right under referee Craig Thomson's nose; Mrowiec certainly made the most of the tackle with a theatrical jump, but it was a reckless, mistimed tackle, one which Thomson had no hesitation in brandishing the red card for.

A goal and a man down at Tynecastle is never a good position to be in but the Celtic support could still expect the side to do its best to get at least a draw; the closest Celtic came was when Mark Wilson fired a shot at MacDonald after a thrusting run from the right back. Worryingly however, this was the only real chance of note and Celtic looked a defeated team well before Ryan Stevenson sealed victory after some more questionable defending, with 10 minutes to go.

Ryan Stevenson seals victory for Hearts

The game limped to the final whistle with Celtic looking utterly bereft of any belief. This is perhaps the most worrying trait this defeat has shown; when we go a goal down the heads seem to drop and there is no real belief that we can overturn it, which is surprising considering the management team consists of men who were part of a Celtic team renowned for its never say die attitude. It could be argued that when you go a man and a goal down that it is natural to lose some belief. But these players play for Celtic; defeat should never be meekly accepted in the fashion it was against Hearts. The support can accept a defeat if we're left in no doubt that the team did as much as it possibly could; however, we just aren't getting that feeling at the moment.

Whether the international break has come at a good or bad time, only time can tell.

Celtic MOTM: A struggle. Kris Commons looked most likely to do something until he stupidly got himself sent off; perhaps Celtic's best performer on the day was Victor Wanyama who at least got himself stuck in and looked up for it.

HEARTS (4-2-3-1): MacDonald; Hamill, Zaliukas, Webster, Grainger; Black (Smith 87), Mrowiec; Skacel (Obua 77), Jonsson, Templeton (Novikovas 83); Stevenson
Subs not used: Balogh, Robinson, Elliot, McGowan

Goals: Skacel (58), Stevenson (81)

CELTIC (4-4-2): Forster; Matthews (Wilson 73), Majstorovic, Mulgrew, El Kaddouri (McCourt 78); Forrest, Ki, Wanyama, Commons; Bangura (Stokes 59), Hooper
Subs not used: Zaluska, Samaras, Rogne, Slane