Will this be a day remembered for the emergence of very special new talent from the Celtic ranks? Aidan McGeady made a scoring debut for the Hoops today and, as Henrik Larsson, counts down the games that remain in his Celtic career, it is all too tempting to ponder a lengthy career for this young bhoy.

With the pressure of maintaining the unbeaten run gone after the unexpected defeat to Aberdeen during the week, Martin O’Neill took the opportunity to give a debut to McGeady and also to give Jamie Smith another start. In addition, Mjallby, Balde and Miller came back into the team at the expense of Lambert, McManus and the enigmatic Sylla.

The Celtic faithful were in full voice throughout, with every song in the book seemingly getting an airing and the players left in no doubt that they were the champions and deservedly so, no matter about the midweek defeat. Indeed, the final whistle saw Martin walk over to salute the green and white faithful, a further sign of his appreciation for the unfailing backing the away support give to the team.

The Cousins of William must have been fancying their chances and, as expected, some of their tackling was on the, eh, “keen” side, shall we say (?). Neil Lennon, as usual, was on the receiving end of most of this treatment and the Swinecastle faithful did not disappoint either with a chorus of boos every time the Ginger Prince touched the ball. However, the Neolithic grunting of the knuckle-draggers bothered the Lurgan Maradona not a jot and, indeed, it simply inspired him to yet another imperious performance in the Celtic midfield.

McGeady it was who got the opening goal to make it a dream debut for the Glasgow-born forward who has declared his allegiance for the Republic of Ireland. Sure enough, the pundits were immediately calling for Bertie Vogts to get him signed up for Scotland, although I’m sure Martin O’Neill will be pouring cold water on that one and shielding the youngster from such speculation.

Young Aidan won a free kick in the first half, which Stan Petrov delivered. The crossed ball evaded the Celtic attackers and fell at the feet of the young son of Donegal who duly lashed it in with great relish and, although he was substituted in the second half, he did enough to suggest that we have a potential star on our hands in the form of this young lhad.

Who’s to say if it was a coincidence that Hearts equalised soon after he was substituted? But, that was indeed what happened and Mark de Vries was the scorer, capitalising on a Mjallby error.

Game on and Hearts must have thought they had a chance of inflicting a second successive defeat on Celtic. Only for a superb reaction save from David Marshall late on, this might have been the case, but 1-1 it ended and that has to be a satisfactory enough result for the Hoops, not least for the sparkling debut of McGeady who was suitably rewarded with a similarly sparkling bottle of champers for a Man of the Match performance.

The future is bright; the future is green and white!