Heart of Midlothian 0-4 Celtic

From Hearts Media at Tynecastle.

Hearts were undone by three first half goals as they chrashed to a 4-0 defeat at home to Celtic on Wednesday evening.

Lassad Nouioui, Mikael Lustig and a Ryan Stevenson own goal effectively put the tie to bed inside the opening 45 minutes. Garry Hooper then added a fourth late on, before Fraser Forster saved a last minute Marius Zaliukas penalty.

With Danny Grainger set for a lengthy lay off as a result of the knee injury sustainted at Motherwell last week, academy graduate Kevin McHattie was given the chance to impress at left back in a side which featured no less than seven products of the Riccarton youth system.

Celtic arrived in Edinburgh on the back of a home defeat to Inverness CT, but any hopes Hearts had of adding to their woes were all but diminshed by half time.

The Jambos rearguard was exposed on nine minutes as Kris Commons found space down the left before aiming an inviting cross at Macdonald's back post, where an unmarked Lassad calmly stroked the ball into the net.

Hearts, meanwhile, had a couple of penalty shouts turned down before Lustig added a second for the Celts. Lassad pulled the ball back across goal from the line and the Swede latched on to a half clearance as he fired the ball into the far corner from six yards out.

It was another sloppy bit of defending from the Jambos, who were by no means outplayed as they looked to push Celtic back at every opportunity.

The Champions then had their keeper to thank for keeping the Jambos out on 24 minutes as both Zaliukas and Ryan McGowan came close to pulling one back after the keeper spilled a Stevenson free kick.

Minutes later, however, the game was all but over as Stevenson inadvertendly sliced a Charlie Mulgrew cross into his own net from seven yards out.

McGlynn's men continued to battle in the second half, with McHattie putting Forster to the test with a well struck free kick shortly after the interval. Too often, however, the Jambos failed to find their rhythm in the final third as Celtic seemed content to hit the home side on the break.

Their strategy paid off with minutes remaining as substitute Hooper grabbed his side's fourth goal with a close range tap in.

Hearts were then awarded a penalty soon after when Kelvin Wilson brought down Stevenson, but Forster dived to his right to deny Zaliukas's spot kick.

It was a disappointing end to a performance which saw Hearts punished for first half defensive errors, and they must now regroup ahead of Sunday's Edinburgh derby at Easter Road.

Hearts: Macdonald; R.McGowan, Webster, Zaliukas, McHattie; Stevenson, Barr, D.McGowan (Robinson 63), Walker (Driver 67), Holt (Taouil 57); Paterson. Subs not used: Enckelman, Sutton, G.Smith, Novikovas.

Celtic: Forster; Lustig (Matthews 68), Ambrose, Wilson, Mulgrew; Commons, Kayal, Wanyama, Ledley (Brown 68); Lassad (Samaras 79), Hooper. Subs not used: Zaluska, Fedor, Watt, McGeouch.

Referee: Willie Collum

Top man: Ryan McGowan

Hearts World