Celtic stretched their impressive record to 19 league wins on Sunday at Tyneside. But it proved a lot harder than previous victories as Hearts put up a commendable fight.
It was a fiery occasion from the outset and within the first 10 minutes of the game John Hartson picked up the first yellow card of 10 issued to the teams by referee Kenny Clarke. It came after the games first corner which was the result of good save from Rab Douglas when Phil Stamp failed to convert a cute cut back.

Celtics first real opportunity shoud’ve came soon after when Larsson was put through by an incisive flick from John Hartson. However, the assistant referee raised his flag in error to judge Henrik offside. 

Martin O’Neills Bhoys didn’t have long to ponder over the “what should’ve been” as they were soon celebrating a well taken Stilian Petrov goal. Larsson provided a through ball to his right which the Bulgarian midfielder took in his stride and calmly slotted it through the legs of Hearts young goal keeper Craig Gordon.

Many thought with one goal under our belts this would give Celtic the confidence to go on and score more but it proved to be the only goal of the game. That wasn’t to say that Celtic didn’t have any more chances because they did. John Hartson had the best opportunity of the first half. The Welsh striker ended up with the ball in the box after neat play from Larsson and Sutton, however his shot was straight into Craig Gordon’s arms. Stan Varga also hit a belting free kick about 25 yards out but at that range the Hearts goalkeeper had time to gather it comfortably.

In the 2nd half it was Hearts who had the early opportunities. Mark De Vries had a couple of spurned chances, one of which was marginally wide after beating Douglas.
Celtics best chances fell to Larsson who uncharacteristically failed to put any of them past an on form Craig Gordon.

In the final minutes of the game Hartson was substituted for Craig Beattie while Hearts threw on Kevin McKenna and Graham Weir in an attempt to justify their valiant effort with valuable point. It was Beattie however who could have stole the headlines when Larsson put him through on goal only to see his shot ricochet off the legs of the oncoming goal keeper.

Nevertheless, it was the green and white hoops of Glasgow that went into the changing rooms with 3 points in the bag, and a firm 11 point lead established at the top of the Sottish Premier League.

MOM Stilian Petrov