Celtic 1 Hearts 2

Apr 16 2012 By Keith Jackson

WHEN it was over, after the Double had been ripped from his grasp and as he made his way back from blaming it all on ref Euan Norris, Neil Lennon offered a firm hand to Craig Beattie.

He must have felt like shaking his old team-mate warmly by his bearded throat.

Because, despite a raging Lennon making a 70-yard bee-line for Norris at the final whistle what happened to Celtic yesterday was almost entirely Beattie’s fault.

From the moment Lennon’s former colleague strode out on to that famous old stage at half-time he was a show stealer.

On his own he turned this contest on its head which is why it was hardly a surprise he should apply the finishing twist of the knife with a penalty in injury time which now sets us all up for a historic end-of-season finale – an Edinburgh derby at the wrong end of the M8.

It was Beattie who did the damage to Celtic, not just by scoring from the spot but also by setting up Rudi Skacel for the opener with pretty much his first touch.

And when he had fired that final shot high past Fraser Forster he took off on a one-man lap of honour, the sight of which will have sickened his old club to its stomach.

But if Lennon was livid with anyone it was, once more, with the match officials. He blamed Norris for presenting Beattie with his last-gasp moment of matchwinning drama and he did have a point.

The award was given when a ball was blasted into Joe Ledley’s arm at pointblank range.

Lennon was then further infuriated deep into injury time when something similar happened to Andy Webster in the other box and this time Norris did nothing.

The fact the ref was correct to do just that was lost on Lennon who was busy erupting once again. For that matter, Celtic’s manager was also conveniently overlooking the decision to allow Gary Hooper’s late equaliser to stand even though the striker was just offside.

No, it wasn’t Norris and his helpers who sunk Celtic yesterday. It was one of their own. And an unrepentant Beattie – who is rekindling a career which seemed to stall dead in Swansea – appeared to savour every last second of it.

His initial absence from Hearts’ starting line-up was something of a hammer blow for a side which arrived here knowing the stakes could hardly be any higher.

Just 24 hours earlier their city rivals had stormed this same building and left with their ticket to the Final. In the process, tantalisingly, Hibs had also set up the possibility of the biggest Edinburgh derby of all time.

And if that was not enough to set maroon pulses racing then the return of some jittery, self-harming tendencies in Celtic’s backline certainly would have been.

Twice in a tentative opening Lennon’s men invited Hearts to take control of the semi-final with moments of hair-raising sloppiness.

First, just 20 seconds in, Kelvin Wilson attempted to play a blind passback to his keeper, having failed to spot Stephen Elliott lurking over his shoulder. The little striker scampered through on goal but Forster snuffed out the shot.

Not long after the keeper fizzed a throw into the feet of Charlie Mulgrew who appeared to freeze rather than function.

As a result he was mugged by Ian Black who burst into the box. It was to Mulgrew’s great relief the Hearts man in turn lost control of his own faculties at the vital moment, making a hash of a cutback rather than lashing for goal.

Perhaps Black was out of his comfort zone. In 20 minutes he was back in much more familiar territory when he left a nasty high boot on one of Ledley’s shinguards after being chopped down himself by Mulgrew.

Both culprits were cautioned. But, this little flashpoint aside, there was little else going on in a game dominated by stray passes and scruffy midfield combat.

Hearts were doing little more than being as stubbornly awkward as possible.

Without Beattie to aim for they hardly made it across the halfway line.

Celtic, in turn, were enjoying plenty of the ball but failing to do a great deal with it.

And it was another defensive brain-melt which presented them with their first big chance when keeper Jamie MacDonald rolled a ball to a wide-eyed Webster on the edge of his own box.

Webster nudged a perfect pass into the path of Kris Commons who raced though but with only MacDonald to beat his first touch was too heavy and the chance had gone.

Gradually, Celtic were grinding Hearts down and on the stroke of half-time they came within a lick of paint of the opener when surprise starter Mikael Lustig picked out Ki Sung-Yueng with a delicious floating cross.

The Korean looked a certain scorer but his header cracked off MacDonald’s post and the deadlock was extended to the interval. By now, not only were Hearts crying out for Beattie’s energy and pace – the entire contest was.

Paulo Sergio was only doing the decent thing by putting him on for the second half, even if Scott Robinson, who made way, may not have agreed.

Less than two minutes after the restart Beattie had made a game-changing impact with a delightful swivel and disguised pass that sent Skacel burrowing into the box.

The Czech got to the ball ahead of Forster, knocked it round the keeper and then fired high into the roof of the net, expertly eliminating Mulgrew’s despairing goal-line lunge.

This was a different Hearts now and a very different semi-final. Skacel, suddenly enthused and engaged in what was going on around him, let fly again with a dipping, swerving effort from 30 yards which Forster did well to tip round the post.

Then Beattie proved his use again, gathering a ball deep inside Celtic’s half, shielding it and popping it off to one side for Skacel to try his luck again. This time his shot flashed wide.

It was Lennon who now needed to come up with an answer and he made his move on the hour when he replaced Georgios Samaras with Anthony Stokes.

Celtic’s sub was always just a bobble or break of the ball away from being in the right place although he did force MacDonald into his first save of the half in 70 minutes with a low drive from the edge of the box which the keeper dealt with comfortably.

But, from here on in, Celtic were finally coming on strong. Incredibly, Ki hit the woodwork again with an almost identical effort to his first-half header, this time from the end of a Commons free-kick.

The same player then hit the deck again, this time screaming for a penalty, but Norris was rightly having none of it.

It was the start of a hectic finale for the official as, with four minutes remaining, Hooper headed Celtic level, having sneaked on to a Mulgrew cross from half a yard further forward than the last Hearts defender.

The came the two late penalty decisions which left Lennon seething – and which set Beattie up for his heroics.

Taken from the Daily Record