A belated review of Celtic’s weekend performances against Hearts due to circumstances and by circumstances I mean a Saturday night Halloween party and being away from the house for a few days.
Celtic had their third meeting with league leaders Hearts on Saturday at Celtic Park, coming a mere six days after seeing off the same opposition at Murrayfield in the League Cup semi-final.
It was really as you were as Hearts tried to sit in and defend and just ended up getting ripped apart as a ravenous Celtic team tore into them from the first whistle and ended the half 3-0 up after Odsonne Edouard cracked in a beauty off the underside of the bar from the edge of the box followed by Filipe Benkovic rising high to power in a header from a corner – yes you heard that right Celtic scored a goal from a corner kick – and French Eddy added his second as he directed a Tierney cross home after the latest fumble from Hearts calamity prone keeper ZdenÄ›k Zlámal who for some reason is now just referred to as ‘Bobby’.
It should have been much more with other chances going a begging including Ryan Christie clipping one just past the post from close range in the opening minutes and then hitting the post as he tried to slide one home soon after the second.
Callum McGregor nearly scored one of the goals of the season in the second 45mins as he ran from his own half into the Hearts goal and rounded a couple of defenders before striking it just past the far post.
James Forrest did make it four after some nice intricate play on the edge of the box from that man Edouard again resulted in the winger turning and burying it past ‘Bobby’ with aplomb.
Forrest then was taken down in the box by Hearts striker Craig Wighton as Celtic terrorised the Edinburgh clubs goal once again and Ryan Christie stepped up to make amends for his earlier misses and stroked home the fifth and final goal sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.
All in all a resounding victory which takes us within a point of Hearts with a game in hand.
Craig Levein later admitted he’d played it safe and it had backfired though I think even if they had been more adventurous things might actually have been worse as his side went back to the capital with their tails firmly between their legs. Even Steven MacLean kept his hands to himself after the scandal of the recent ‘bawsgate’.
So now Celtic go into this Thursday evenings match with Red Bull Leipzig in pretty incredible domestic form though I’ll reserve any talk of that for another article.
Elsewhere Rangers ended their three-match winless run and once again underlined the managerial genius of Steven Gerrard as they scored twice late to rescue three points against a struggling St.Mirren at New St.Mirren Park in Paisley.
Loveable rogue Alfredo Morelos was lucky to survive a 50 pence piece being directed at his genitalia that he didn’t seem to notice and after the game St.Mirren keeper Craig Samson had collected enough coins in his goal to afford a Big Mac meal en route home as Scottish football fans continue to show amazing financial frivolity in the face of the oncoming Brexit.
Kris Boyd also got a rare runout at home for his beloved Kilmarnock against Aberdeen and scored a penalty midway through the first half which led to him losing his mind and going crazy in front of the Aberdeen support as he goaded them with reference to his weight before an off the cuff dance resulted in a five pound note being hurled at him. He later used this to purchase a lasagna and two bags of monster munch at a local Tesco express.
- Boyd goes bananas.Â
Clearly, motivated by Boyd’s banal celebration Aberdeen went onto win the game 2-1 with Barry Ferguson’s nephew Lewis curling in a late free kick in front of the travelling faithful who celebrated wildly though Boydie had long since departed to purchase his aforementioned post-match meal by that point.
Just another weekend in the mad, mad world that is Scottish football. Just remember no matter how all of the results turn out every club brings it upon themselves.
....Always A Tim! 