With the Huns and Hearts both winning on Saturday, it was up to the Hoops to show their resolve with a difficult fixture against high flying Hibs. The Hibees were on a roll with 4 straight wins including the 3-0 demolition at castle greyskull, and the consensus in East Edinburgh was they would make it 5 when Celtic came to town today.

With the same team that started in the 2-0 win over Aberdeen, Celtic set their stall out early with slick possession football across the midfield. It took only 5 minutes for the midfield trio of Nakamura, Petrov and Thompson to open up the Hibs defence. Hartson laid it into Nakamura’s apth on the right side of midfield. Naka took a touch, looked up and stroked an inch perfect pass into the onrushing Petrov’s path. Stan wasted no time and buried an unstoppable drive low under Malkowski to finish off an incisive move.

It could easily have been more as the half progressed, Thompson finding Nakamura with a sublime cross field pass only for the Japanese star to have his shot well blocked. Hartson also found himself in space in the box but his weakly struck effort was easily saved.

Balde and McManus were effective without being overly troubled – only O’Connor looked like ruffling any feathers. A decent long range shot from Whittaker was the only Hibs effort that had big Artur scrambling across in goal. As the half finished, it was Celtic who were well in control, Strachans balanced system working well in the midfield – allowing Thompson and Nakamura to come infield with Camara and Telfer putting in the tireless shifts on the flanks.

Unfortunately, this superiority would disappear in the second half. Thompson was withdrawn after 5 minutes of the restart and Stephen Pearson introduced in his place. It was unclear if Thommo took a knock or if it was a decision to give Pearo some more game time. It was a switch I felt changed the control of the match. Hibs pushed on with confidence, playing most of the football in Celtic’s half. The were restricted to mainly long shots in fairness but after the fifth or sixth one went narrowly wide most fans hearts could take no more. Stan the man was everywhere as usual, putting in crucial tackles and headers and then leading the Celtic counter attacks. Nakamura did manage to hit the post from a sweet free-kick in the middle of this barrage but it was little consolation on how easily Celtic were being pushed back.

Then came the moment of frustration from Hibs own wee Rangers fan. Outclassed by Telfer all day, he decided to lash out at his captor in a silly lunge which in fairness to Paul he wasn’t for taking! This resulted in a bit of a free for all and ended by Sproule being led away in a headlock by the referee of all people!! I suppose it was his way of making up for his hat-trick against his number one team. The game continued anyway with bookings for Telfer, Ivan the terrible and big bad Bobo.

Hibs own substitute, Fletcher proceeded to sting the hands of Boruc near the end, but Celtic hung on. The hoops had been left with fleeting counter attacks all half, most of which fell to Celtics supersubs, Beattie and Maloney, but neither could find the killer touch. Relief around the Celtic end greeted the final whistle and Neil Lennon showed what the 3 points meant to him with a defiant clenched fist to the faithful at the end. Cue – ‘Theres only one………

Boruc 7, Camara 6, Telfer 8, Balde 7, McManus 7, Lennon 6, Nakamura 8 (Maloney 6), Petrov 9, Thompson 8 (Pearson 5) Zurawski 6 Hartson 6 (Beattie 7)