Hearts came out of the traps fast last night and give Celtic a game of it for 20 mins or so before our Championship credentials showed and we began to dominate.
Our takeover started thanks to a goal out of nothing when Edouard somehow evaded four Hearts players with a back heel that found Forrest and just as I was complaining that Ryan Christie had robbed him unnecessarily of the ball as he was about to advance into the box the Celtic midfielder found the net with a low drive from outside the box to give us the lead on 28 mins. Incredibly that’s also Christie’s 17th goal of the season already.
Odsonne Edouard should have been through on goal to make it two only minutes later but his first touch let him down before James Forrest then did break through on goal and should have made it 2-0 but his effort was painfully poor and went about a few feet wide of the post.
But all was forgiven five minutes before half time when Forrest raced down the left wing and his cross was missed at the front post by Edouard only for it to fall to Ntcham who finished beautifully.
In the second half it looked like we’d run riot in the opening 15 minutes but French Eddy’s finishing deserted him as he was denied at point blank range by a fantastic Aaron Hickey tackle, before then seeing a header crash off the bar and then his back post effort was kept out by Hearts keeper Joel Pereira.
Callum McGregor also advance though on Pereira but again found the on loan Jambos keeper in inspired form.
So 2-0 was how it finished which is a little disappointing considering how dominant we were throughout and the number of chances we created.
For Hearts’ new manager Daniel Stendel it was another chastening experience after seeing his team lose 1-0 at the weekend at home to St.Johnstone and he has a massive job on his hands picking that lot off the bottom of the league.
For Celtic we go five points clear at the top.
Rangers play Hibs tomorrow night at Easter Road in what could be a potential banana skin and then we’re back in action on Saturday at 3pm at home against third placed Aberdeen.
Off the filed it’s all change at the Dons with long serving chairman Stewart Milne stepping down and wealthy shareholder Dave Cormack stepping in to replace him.
They’ve also moved into a brand new £12 million training complex in Kingsford, named after the new chairman, and plan to build a brand new 30,000 stadium there too within the next three to five years though recent rumours seem to suggest that staying at Pittodrie might still be on the cards.
On the field their form has a familiar complexion with them being the best of the rest in the league on 32 points and heavily reliant on the wing play of Niall McGinn and the goal scoring of big striker Sam Cosgrove who already has 19 to his name this season.
Form wise they are in a decent place having lost only one of their last eight – a surprise 3-0 thumping at Hibs a fortnight ago – with five wins and two draws which includes coming back from 2-0 down to get a 2-2 draw with Rangers at Pittodrie a few weeks back.
Usually tight at the back they have the fourth best defensive record in the league and are the fifth highest scorers having scored three goals in a game five times already this season.
Their record in this fixture is pretty awful though.
We’ve already hammered them 4-0 at Pittodrie back in late October and they haven’t won in the last seven against us though they did record a 0-0 draw against us at Celtic Park at the tail end of last season and beat us 1-0 in the final game of the 2017/18 campaign which is their only win in the last 18 encounters versus the hoops.
Having seen their European adventure end at the customary 3rd qualifying round stage back in August and their League Cup run also end early the third spot in the league and a good cup run are the Dons priorities now and with Motherwell on form and Hibs re-energised under new boss Jack Ross they’ll have a fight on their hands to secure the league position alone.
For us another win is vital and we seem to be back to playing well having gone through a three game blip with comfortable 2-0 wins over the two Edinburgh teams in the past week.
I just hope we can start getting back to our free scoring ways and retain our healthy lead at the top in time for the Old Firm game which is now only ten days away.
I’ll predict……..2-0.
....Always A Tim! 