Celtic 5 Hearts 0

Roddy Forsyth

If this should prove to be Gary Hooper’s farewell to Celtic - he has been linked strongly with a move to England in the summer - the prolific striker went out on a blaze that was as spectacular as the firework display which accompanied him and his fellow title winners as they took their lap of honour after the final whistle.

The five goals he bagged during a rampant performance took his league total to 24, his season total to 29 and his scoring record for Celtic to a neatly rounded 50.

He did it in economic style, too, with three of the five requiring little more than a nudge of his boot to find the net.

As for Hearts, they didn’t hang about to watch Celtic being presented with their SPL championship trophy, but it might have been prudent of Paulo Sergio to send them back out to see what silverware looks like.

Certainly, if they perform at Hampden Park on Saturday as they did in the east end of Glasgow on Sunday, Hearts will present city rivals Hibs with their best chance of Scottish Cup success in 110 years.
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Of course, this was Celtic’s afternoon - the consummation of the campaign that has seen them annexe the title four years after they last won it under Gordon Strachan - and Hearts were not at full strength, but their usual back four was in action and presented such little resistance to Hooper that the Tynecastle faithful might entertain misgivings about their chances next weekend.

There was certainly no question that the flat atmosphere of Celtic’s most recent outing at home – against St Johnstone ten days previously – would be duplicated on this feast day. The crowd was raucous from the start as spectators savoured the latest rash of jokes about Rangers’ plight – like the one which says the last two owners of the Ibrox club will be Green and Whyte.

Their heroes were up for it, too, none more so than Hooper, who started the match as the SPL’s top scorer and finished it out of sight of any other contender for the crown. His predatory instincts saw him claim the first after only four minutes when Jamie MacDonald spilled a drive from Kris Commons at Hooper’s feet, leaving the striker a simple job to tap across the line.

Three minutes later he had doubled his margin, although Georgios Samaras did the heavy lifting with a battering run through the Hearts defence before slipping a simple release ball to Hooper, loitering all alone and, as he promptly demonstrated, within lethal range of the target.

Hearts were visibly dazed, as well they might have been. They soon had to deal with an unforced problem when Mehdi Taouil - who already had a caution to his name - clattered into Victor Wanyama with a challenge that would probably have seen him sent for the long walk in less benign circumstances.

Sergio reacted swiftly, getting Taouil off the pitch before he could do damage and replacing him with Denis Prychynenko, but it made little difference to the flow of play towards MacDonald, who had to pick the ball out of the net once more after Arvydas Novikovas toppled Joe Ledley inside the box and Hooper – who else? – grabbed the ball, placed it on the spot and despatched it beyond the goalkeeper to register his hat trick with eight minutes left to play before the break.

As they reflected upon their destruction at the interval Hearts might have hoped that Celtic would save their energy for cavorting around with their chunk of metal at the end, but Hooper had other notions. Midway through the second half he added to Hearts’ woes with a contribution that might even have seen him break sweat.

He fastened on to a tidy pass from Commons and waltzed elegantly around the baffled MacDonald to roll the ball over the unguarded line.

“We want five,” bellowed the fans and they were granted their desire when Samaras sent over a low cross that required only another deft touch from Hooper to take his tally to five win the dying seconds.

Two managers watched with satisfaction from the stands. One was Neil Lennon, who had the pleasure of seeing Celtic take their points total to 93 - equalling Rangers achievement under Walter Smith last season.

The other was Pat Fenlon, who departed afterwards for Dublin, where his Hibs squad will prepare for the William Hill Scottish Cup final with just a touch more optimism than most observers have suggested is justified.

Match details

Celtic (4-3-2-1): Forster, Wanyama, Loovens, Mulgrew; Matthews, Brown (Kayal 67), Ledley (McCourt 69); Commons (Stokes 81), Sanmaras; Hooper. Subs: Zaluska (g), Lustig, Cha, Twardzik. Booked: Brown.
Hearts (4-5-1): MacDonald; McGowan, Webster (Barr 83), Zaliukas, Grainger; Taouil (Prychynenko 24), Mrowiec; Novikovas (Holt 46), Robinson, Templeton; Glen. Subs: Ridgers (g), Driver, Skacel, Santana. Booked: Taouil, Grainger.
Referee: Alan Muir.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk