Celtic hit four as three horse race falters

27th Jan2011

Celtic hit four as three horse race falters

by WeKnowSFA

They shoot horses don’t they?

What many Celtic fans believe was the sound of thunder in the East End of Glasgow last night may just have been the sound of air escaping from the maroon balloon. Like so many times before, Hearts came to Glasgow talking the talk but ended up sheepishly returning across the M8 having failed to walk the walk.

It is hard to get the true measure of how good Celtic were and how bad Hearts were but to be fair, Celtic were very good and Hearts offered nothing. Your stance on Scottish football will colour that opinion for you but it would be good to give credit to Celtic for their performance.

The early goal from James Forrest, coming after a tremendous Gary Hooper flick allowed Scott Brown to switch the play to the winger, was a tremendous goal. Forrest gets a lot of power on these shots, from very little backlift and Kello in goals for Hearts knew little about the goal before the ball was cannoning into the net behind him. It was the early lift Celtic were craving but taking the lead has not always been enough for Celtic to prosper this season.

They did so and easily contained Hearts in a game that threatened to boil over on a number of occasions. Referee Norris had an absolute stinker of the game with the first booking of the match on Mark Wilson being farcical. Hearts had already shown their intent to stand up against Celtic, all of which was acknowledged by Norris but Wilson was booked for his first foul when he took the ball. It is just baffling to see the interpretation of the rules that some refs apply in a game.

Rudi Skacel and Ian Black were the serial offenders for Hearts with Skacel eventually picking up a booking, which didn’t curtail his fouling or mouthing off to the ref. Jim Jefferies was left with no option to sub the player at half-time as there was a serious concern about Skacel picking up a red card if he continued in the same vein.

A great Anthony Stokes free-kick, albeit aided by poor positioning from Kello gave Celtic a 2-0 lead but there followed a few moments of madness with Norris handing out yellow cards like crisps at a dinner party. Paddy McCourt was fouled and then ran into with Black unsurprisingly in the thick of it but as players from both sides got involved, it was inevitable that a ref who had no control of the game would hand out punishments to as many players as possible.

This took the edge off the game for a while but when Anthony Stokes tapped home after Gary Hooper was taken out of the play by Kello, it was game over and Stokes could see the funny side.

Perhaps he was laughing at Kello claiming offside even though Stokes was behind the ball….and because Kello fouled Hooper who was rounding him for an easy tap-in or maybe it was the fact that birthday boy Gary Hooper did all the hard work and Stokes was left with an easy finish for his 15th of the season.

Stokes should have made it 16 for the season but his fresh air swipe allowed Paddy McCourt to strike for Celtic’s fourth and completed a fantastic evening for the hoops. Celtic should take confidence from this win but there is no time to relax as the League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen is looming.

As for Hearts, they face St Johnstone at Tynecastle and have to show they have the fight and desire to come back from a bad defeat. After all, that is often the measure of big teams.