A lack of cutting edge cost Celtic dearly as a Hearts smash and grab sent them into the Scottish Cup final after spending most of the game under the cosh. A controversial last minute penalty by Craig Beattie put Hearts through after an equally controversial equaliser from Celtic four minutes from time.
Celtic completely dominated the first half but had nothing up front to exploit their possession or territorial advantage. Hearts best opportunity of the game came within the opening seconds when Kelvin Wilson was carless with a back pass which was collected by Elliot but Fraser Forster came to the rescue.
Celtic then took over and bossed Hearts comprehensively but could not find a way to open the Hearts defence. Lustig headed over from Kris Commons free kick after the full back was fouled. Midway through the half Commons and Samaras combined to release Mulgrew who crossed from the win for Hooper who should have scored with his header from 8 yards but could not find the target.
Commons nipped onto a short back pass 10 minutes from half time but his touch to take the ball behind goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald was too heavy. Commons had Celtic’s first attempt on target five minutes from the break with a shot from 23 yards but MacDonald saved comfortably.
Ki had two incredible chances in the game, both unmarked back post headers at the end of each half. With 44 minutes gone he struck the upright from 4 yards when he should have scored, an outcome that would be repeated towards the end of the game.
Craig Beattie was introduced at half time and immediately changed the pattern of the game. Two minutes into the second half he played-in Rudi Skacel, benefitting from a ricochet off Kelvin Wilson. Skacel rounded Fraser Forster and shot high into the net.
The goal seemed to break Celtic’s spirit as Hearts created several chances in the opening 20 minutes of the second half. Skacel shot from 35 yards, forcing Forster into a good save. The same player then shot wide after a knock down from Beattie.
Andy Driver dispossessed Michael Lustig just after the hour but Glenn Loovens came to the rescue and conceded a corner. Craig Beattie then played a one-two with Driver before shooting narrowly wide.
Neil Lennon changed Celtic’s shape in an attempt to get back into the game, replacing Samaras with Anthony Stokes and Celtic were soon back in the ascendency. Hooper linked with Stokes on 66 minutes but the Irishman’s shot was deflected wide.
Stokes then headed over from a Ledley cross and had an attempt from 13 yards after Mulgrew cut back to him.
On 82 minutes Ki should have levelled after Kris Commons chipped a free kick towards the back post by the Korean midfielder headed against the post again.
Anthony Stokes should have equalised with five minutes remaining when he got onto the end of a Mulgrew header but he could not turn the ball goal-wards.
A minute later Dylan McGeogh fed Joe Ledley who moved the ball onto Charlie Mulgrew. Mulgrew crossed for Gary Hooper who headed home from 4 yards but the Celtic striker was in an offside position when the cross was played.
In the 90th minute referee Euan Norris awarded Hearts a penalty kick when the ball struck Joe Ledley’s arm when struck from less than 2 yards from him while he was trying to turn his back on the ball to block. Ledley’s arm was not at his side but it was not in an unnatural position either, nor was there even the remotest suggestion of a deliberate act. Beattie struck the penalty straight down the middle as Forster dived to his left.
The last few frantic moments of the game offered further opportunities for Celtic. A Ledley volley was saved before the ball struck Andy Webster inside the Hearts box but the referee wasn’t interested on this occasion.
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Shocking, on all fronts…!
Heart sick…
disgrace of a ref
Not good.
We were better team for 65 – 70 of the mins.
Penalty? Aye right.
We are back time for assesments later.The game is corrupt please ,please get us out of this scum infested league.
Hail Hail
Cheated.
We’re always talking about making a statement ala the refs, the sfa etc….. Lennon should have pulled the team from the field today prior to the penalty and given a girfuy to them all!!
did it defo hit the hearts players hand?……………regardless never a penalty against joe.
we played shite…..apart from the last 10mins.
didnt get the whole long ball thingy, didnt get the jogging pace that we played at, didnt get a lot of the game plan really………………
but hey ho! id rather be a jobby than a mini
.
HeartsBroken..
Summa
John Robertson on radio.
Pity it was not TV as I would have liked to have seen him in his Hearts top again !
The scumbag of a referee couldn’t wait to give that penalty. There’s not another team in the world it would have been given against.
We got one decision in our favour and several against.
That’s evening out, isn’t it?
Celtic are not Welcome in this Stain of a Country.
We have brought it Glory, Class and Have led the way on all fronts yet still treated as a pariah.
THEY kill our hopes and dreams, our hard earned achievements stolen on a whim yet again leaving thousands of TIms young and Old leaving Hampdump in sheer disbelief.
Utter Scum
Ref was dire but our performance was insipid. How can you miss two headers from 3 yards out?
Norris couldn’t wait to give that penalty. Robertson kept bleating about our goal being offside but they should have been playing with ten men and that was never a penalty.
Ki must score with those headers though.
Here’s my take, not seen any of the decisions or read back.
After wining the title last week I think it was wrong to give the players so much time off in the week leading up to this match, they have all summer to celebrate and bit more professionalism is required. Same thing happened last season before Inverness. Perspective for me was Ross county captain saying today they wouldn’t celebrate until the season finished.
Was too much to ask, a full week prep for this match opposed away on the bevy?
I’m angry and disappointed in the players.
Overall, this season may be looked back at with disappointment.
Hail Hail
‘GG on 15 April, 2012 at 15:37 said:
Yes we are back.
However I feel cheated.
If ever there is a discussion on whether we are the vistim of refereeing thuggery, just replay the last 10 minutes of that game.
Then also ask whether Black deserved a red.
The club should be exerting pressure on the SFA to investigate these “DIShonest mistakes.”
We should compile a list of these dishonest decisions and tell the SFA we will not accept the appointment of these refs to our games.
Then watch the controversy commence.
A couple of posts above refer to how badly we played. But we still played better than Hearts. I think Paul has summarised it correctly. Wasteful in front of goals – just as we were against Killie.
Lot of people around the interwebs saying forget the penalty, we just weren’t good enough. Seriously???
Err, yes we were good enough. Was never a penalty and he shouldn’t have, it materially affected the outcome of the game. We were cheated, plain and simple. Euan Norris is a cheat.
Have to be honest though and say i don’t think the ball struck Webster’s arm. But Ki was clipped, and it was last man.
Thought it was a poor performance but these things happen,
What was totally inexcusable for me was the ref’s management of two pretty similar instances occurring within a few minutes of each other. In my view no penalty kicks should have been awarded. However having awarded ridiculously against Ledley it’s incongruous that the ref could then decide the Webster incident also did not merit a penalty.
I guess these awards really tell us just how much we are hated in this pathetic backwater.
Don’t think we played badly at all, Wildon however is a complete liabil
ity. Refs a rogue.
Regardless of whether we play well or badly the least we should expect is fairness – oh wait a minute its
Scotland
SFA
Hun Refs
League Cup Final against Kilmarnock. scottish Cup semi final against Hearts.
Really big games.
We are just not good enough.
Lack of creativity in midfield is glaringly obvious, even to me.
Wilson is a diddy. Lustig, not for me.
Where to now Neil?
I think we should be told.
I thought Celtic were pretty poor and Neil has to have them prepared better for these games.
However…….that penaly decision for me sums up what this country is about. Its an absolutely disgraceful decision – you see those every week and penalties are not given. Norris was desparate to do that – desparate.
And then we have the usual reaction – the so called pundits all decide it is a penalty – contradicting their usual stance. The anti Celtic stance on BBC Scotland is quite remarkable and as for Clyde – well its simply wall to wall hunnery on there. Once again they indulge in the rewriting of history and they allow the worst elements of our society to call in to vent their absolute hatred of Neil Lennon.
Its time for Lennon to be given the support he needs from our Board and for our Board to break their silence on whats going on with the SPL and the SFA. Its time we got very serious about this. The SPL and SFA are on the ropes – the media has been exposed for what it it and it is absolutely the cheating will NEVER stop unless we force it. We need to go for them formally now and declare that we have no confidence in the Scottish Football authorities and request UEFA to investigate.
It has to stop because if it doesnt then the concept of football as little more than watching a game of wrestling – all for show but no real competitiveness will grow and will impact the Celtic support. Whether the Board like it or not – they have to act.
Euan Norris = cheat
Willie collum = cheat
Mike Mccurry= cheat
Doggie McDonald = cheat
Craig Thompson = cheat
Hugh Dallas= cheat
And I have pointed out refs who do not apply the rules when we play and are still working to an agenda .
The Celtic board should be making written complaint ever time we are subject to abnormal decisions to the spl.
We as a club are paying for these feckin idiots at £1000 a time to bend the rules for the other team.
Just could not believe it when black blocked ball going to samaras with hand and then Websters hand stopping the ball going to hooper.
Jam67
Difficult to know what to say about the penalty. I’ve simply never seen that one given in any other game, anywhere.
But the ref obviously wanted it enough to give it in injury time in a semi final…
No doubt Norris is next in line for the jokey chatty interview in the Record…
Okay -tin hat on…
Unfortunately another insipid performance on the big occasion at Hampden. In a carbon copy of the cup final we look tactically inept against mediocre sides who are simply organised well. Our substitutions baffled me, unless all 3 were injured. Spammy was not having his best game but I would have taken off the out of condition Commons and pushed Sammy wide, we need pace in the side. Wilson is truly shocking at the back.
Our manager and his coaching staff need to look in the mirror rather than again deflect attention by blaming the referee for one bad decision. It is a shocking example for a Celtic manager to set by confronting the referee on the pitch.
After we scored the equaliser we immediately handed Hearts the initiative by conceding a stupid free kick, we never looked convincing.
We didn’t deserve to lose the game for sure.
We had our chances, didn’t take them.
If that was a pen, we were cheated out of a pen.
I suppose the debate whether Hoops was offside or not will rage, I have watched it about 50 times, and he’s on imo, but there are still folk saying he is off.
Looks like Lenny will get hammered again, so make it worthwhile Lenny, no point getting hung for a lamb.
Today showed what life will be like without the hun, the cheats will do their stuff.
Either get out, or force changes with the referees, or we will struggle.
Charlie first foul, a booking, Driver had about 8 fouls no card.
We have to play to different rules.
In saying all that, we had chances that we didn’t take, on another day, like last week, things would have been so different.
Wilson and liability……
The main reason we lost that game was the lack of a cutting edge in the first half, where we deserved to go in two or three goals up. We were poor in the second half; they were more dangerous than us.
Never a penalty but Hooper’s goal was just offside. Main refereeing grievance for me was that Black should have been sent off twice.
Most disappointing of all is that empty feeling that the league’s over now.
Hopefully give some of the U19 Champions a run out in the first team now to keep it interesting.
Robbed again!
Hearts – never a penalty, having said that once again, on the big stage we bottled it plain and simple.
We have better players in every position than Hearts and Killie but both got the better of us and that is down to tactics, team selection and attitude.
Today the players let us down.
So much for Fleming cleaning up refereeing ,meet the new boss same as the old boss, Im afraid to say we wil never gets fairness hear so we need to move or force the SFA to bring in refs from elsewhere there appears to be too much predjudice going on to the park against us. for those who say stick the ball in the net well in tight games you want correct decisions made without bias we will never get this under the SFA.
I met a former Grade 1 ref during the week and I think he is an observer I would say he has Celtic leaning he could not keep the smirk off his face when trying to talk about football here we will never get fairness from the referee these guys think they are the game and act without censure or demotion.
Snyde can hardly contain their anti-Neil Lennon feelings today.
It doesn’t matter whether we were brilliant or awful. Whether we created chances or not. Whether we scored or not.
We should have the basic right to expect a game to be officiated in accordance with the laws of the game.
The corruption is now so blatant that refs know they will never be brought to task when its against Celtic.
Lunny is Dallas2
Whoever suggested it would be different is deluded.
When a country gives tacit approval then the decks are truly stacked.
Won’t hold my breath on msm questioning the ref choosing to apply two different interpretations of two similar incidents.
Wonder which hun ex ref will be asked for his justification of his fellow mason in tomorrows press?
Forget the mibs!!!!
We should be putting these teams away early doors.
Blaming a hun ref is just an excuse to cover our inadequacies.
And we have a few.