CELTIC 0 -2  HEARTS

            Whilst we can always be assured of a tough game against the Hearts, it is safe to say that no one would have expected us to be 2-0 down with only twenty minutes on the clock.  Particularly when those goals were the product of only three relative attacks.  But when a helping hand is provided by a somewhat static defence, it may be easier to see why Hearts left Celtic Park with three precious points in their back pocket.

The curse of our defence has struck once again.  An ordinary free kick caused a fine save by Marshall, but Lee Miller was first to react to the rebound, converting on eight minutes.  But that, as so often has been the case before, was not the end of it.  Henchoz, replaced after just thirty minutes, headed straight to Miller ten minutes later, who supplied Burchill and the former Celt duly took his goal.  Salt in the wound you could say.

The Celts did attack almost incessantly from that point, but with Hearts pulling all their men back, it was difficult to find a way through.  The introduction of Ross Wallace, with the slack Henchoz taken off, seemed to give the Celts some fire, and from the fans' point of view, gave some encouragement that MON isn't afraid to shake things up early if necessary.

But despite Bellamy continuing his incessant running, and Petrov having a shot parried away by Gordon, it was a few minutes later when Wallace missed a brilliant chance right before half time that we should have seen how the afternoon was going to pan out. 
From the commencement of the second half, Celtic were again pressing, but with Gordon in fine form in the Hearts goal, and their defence clearing up anything that came their way, Celtic could simply not break down a team who were searching for only their first away win in eight league games.  Not even the introduction of Maloney with around twenty minutes left could add anything to a lacklustre and tired looking team.

With just a few minutes left, Bellamy missed his chance to score his first home league goal, but put the ball a mile over from close range.  Celtic only once before this season have failed to score at home, against Rangers.  This game, coming after an international week involving a number of our players, most notably Petrov, Bellamy and Hartson, showed that money must be spent on building a squad capable of providing something special when our bigger names are tiring after a long season.  Let's hope this is a wake up call that will spur us on to better performances for the remainder of the season.