After a rather fortunate win against Rangers on Saturday, Hearts fans were justifiably hoping that the team would turn in a better performance at Parkhead to put pressure on Celtic. Sadly, we just never got to grips with a rampant home team whose passing and movement were streets ahead of Hearts.
Hearts brought in Ian Black instead of Ruben Palazuelos from Saturday`s team. Straight from the kick-off, the visitors were on the back foot. Young winger Forrest got the first when he outwitted Jonsson in the box to smash a great left-foot shot high into the net at Kello`s near post.
Hearts only made 3 worthwhile forays towards the Celtic goal in the first half – the best being Stephen Elliott`s low cross from inside the box just evading the onrushing Ryan Stevenson.
1-0 at half-time probably looked ok from Hearts point of view, although Rudi Skacel got himself in some silly fouls and disputes – and his booking was enough to convince JJ to leave inside for the 2nd half, with Ruben Palazuelos coming on. However Celtic got their second from a perfect Stokes free-kick, bending over the wall to beat Kello at his near post.
Celtic`s third came when they beat the Hearts offside trap at the halfway line, with Stokes supplying the finish after rounding Kello. 10 minutes from time, McCourt notched the 4th as the Celtic players queued up to finish yet another incisive attack.
Hooper, Kayal, Brown and Stokes swarmed all over Hearts tonight, and only Bouzid and Wallace showed flashes of competence for the visitors. The home side showed admirable tenacity, confidence and skill – with Neil Lennon admitting that this was their best performance of the season.
The life of a Hearts supporter is peppered with let-downs like this !! There`s no doubt that Hearts have gone off the boil a bit recently – with the form of Skacel and Templeton being erratic, and Kyle still missing – so it is now essential that the team produce a good performance against St. Johnstone on Saturday, so that we can start feeling optimistic again.
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To sum up my feelings for tonight: profanity filter sucks.
I must say I applaud your honest un-biased report. You deserve a lot of credit for this.
when are there ever biased reports on this site?!!
….seriously, this result shouldn’t really be a massive surprise given what happened on Saturday. It could easily have been 3 or 4-0 then if we hadn’t got a few breaks. Maybe this is the wake-up call we’ve needed for a while, although you could argue we got that with the cup defeat against St Johnstone. Vital we bounce back on Saturday though….if not then it’ll be yet another case of the bubble bursting. If we CAN get a result though then there is still a chance to redeem this at Ibrox next week, especially with Celtic facing a tough looking game at Pittodrie….
Cheers WeeTim67 – but remember, this is a high-class operation at Vital Hearts !! Mr H – yes you’re right there. I’d expect a mauling at Ibrox if we put in another performance like that. So the players have to get their act together on Saturday ahead of it.
they do indeed….we were always outsiders here anyway but it would be great if they could just hang in there say 6-9 points off the top for the next few weeks. If they can do that they give themselves at least a chance of aiming for a place above third….
so disappointing. outplayed all over the park by a team putting in one of the best performances of the season. In terms of the season though, not the end of the world, i’m still delighted to be following a team on such a fantastic run. Celtic seem to be on a run and fair play to them, but we’re still a team on a roll and have kyle to come back, driver not far off, wallace just getting back, temps may be off the boil but we have cover, skacel had a bad night but has been decent, elliott has been good latelty and the defence looks generally solid…….. I’m shrugging this off as a bad night in a good season :o)
Good point there PT_J – with a bit of luck we’ll see KK and the Driver back before the end of Feb, which will hopefully give the team a lift. You’ve cheered me up with those comments – well done !!
i do try, as specs haver says, we’re a high class operation here!
I’ll organise the hookers then…
*chokes on his tea…!*