17th December 2017 Hearts v Celtic 4-0


Having missed the Dundee game due to illness and then with no games on Saturday due to frozen pitches in the Edinburgh area I was looking forward to this one. Walked to Tynecastle and arrived around 12.00 for the 12.30 kick-off as game was live on Sky. Hearts had what looked like a weakened team out with Jamie Walker and Arnaud Djoum injured and John Souttar suspended. Micheal Smith moved into central defence to replace Souttar with David Milinkovic and Harry Cochrane coming in to midfield. From the side on Tuesday team Ross Callachan replaced Anthony McDonald. Celtic were on a 69 game unbeaten run against Scottish opposition since Brendan Rodgers took over as manager. I heard later that Sky pundit Kris Commons, an ex-Cetic player, had suggested Celtic would win 5-0. Well he was proved wrong in spectacular fashion.

From the start Hearts took the game to Celtic and harried them all over the park when Celtic had possession. The Celtic central defence did not look comfortable against Kyle Lafferty and Craig Gordon in the Celtic goal seemed unsure with his kicking. Hearts took the lead in 26 minutes when Randall found Don Cowie on the right in line with the 18 yard line. Cowie passed to Cochrane on the edge of the box who controlled the ball and then  hammered a low shot into the corner of Gordon's goal. I later found out this made Cochrane Hearts youngest ever competitive first team goal scorer. Shortly thereafter Gordon made a good save from a run and shot by Milinkovic. However in 37 minutes Milinkovic won the ball in midfield from Celtic's Calum McGregor and drove towards the Celtic goal. He passed to Kyle Lafferty on his left and Kyle took a touch then shot from about twenty-five yards. From where I was sitting it looked like ball was going past the far post and out but it hit the inside of the post and into the net. Lafferty enjoyed celebrating in front of the Celtic fans and Hearts went into the break 2-0 ahead. Through halftime all I could think about was a match in the 1970's where Hearts went 3-0 up on Celtic thanks to a Willie Gibson hat-trick but ended up getting beat 4-3. However 1970's defence were not as good as the one today who had kept Celtic from scoring by blocking shots and get great tackles in.

Minutes into the second half a long ball from Randall seemed to be easy for Celtic centre-half Simuunovic to head back to Gordon in goal. However his header could only be described as 'comic cuts' as Milinkovic intercepted the ball on the eighteen yard line, rounded Gordon and despite a defender on the line knocked the ball home to put Hearts 3-0 up. Tynecastle was rocking and he atmosphere was brilliant. Prince Bauben had to leave the field due to injury and was replaced by 16 year old Anthony McDonald.Shortly thereafter  Lafferty was also forced off and replaced by Cole Stockton. Soon after this substitution Callachan raced on to a through ball and although his first touch was not the best he was taken out by Gordon in the Celtic goal. As Callachan was running away from goal Gordon was not booked. Milinkovic grabbed the ball in the absence of regular penalty kick taker Lafferty and hammered home goal number four. 

The remainder of the game was played out in a brilliant atmosphere round Tynecastle with Celtic fans regularly leaving the ground. At the final whistle the fans, including me, went absolutely mental. This was the best game I have seen since the 2012 Scottish Cup final when Hearts beat Hibs 5-1. I could not fault anyone in the team who all worked tirelessly. The defence was excellent with Jon McLaughlin making a couple of good saves, while the back four stuck to their task and closed Celtic down to limit goals-coring opportunities. Midfield and up front Hearts worked really hard to stop Celtic playing but also showed a great deal of skill and attacking potential.

Walked home a happy man, stopped at Sainsbury's on the way for a celebratory bottle of wine.

Teams
Hearts: McLaughlin, Brandon, Berra, M.Smith, Randall, Cowie, Callachan, Cochrane, Buaben, Milinkovic, Lafferty. 
Subs: McDonald, Stockton, Grzelak

Celtic: Gordon, Lustig, Simunovic, Boyata, Tierney, Forrest, Ntcham, Brown, McGregor, Sinclair, Griffiths. 
Subs: Dembele, Amstrong, Edouard

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