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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Poor , pedestrian and profligate..
Wilson is nowhere near being good enough to wear the jersey.
The Officiating was dire and clearly not fit for purpose. .
It concerns me that I had a feeling Killie would win.
It concerns me that I had a feeling Hearts would win..
We badly need a playmaker .
So a new Law of the game has been brought in.
If Celtic don’t play like Barca and score 6 goals like last week, then it’s ok for a ref to CHEAT.
When did this law get voted in????
I truly despair!!!
Never been a board basher, but if they don’t defend Neil Lennon all the way with this then i may well start.
Hooper was in line, so a perfectly good goal.
Never a pen, Ledley actually pulls his arm into his body so as there would be no chance of a pen being awarded.Did the tef actually see the incident as i thought there was a few bodies between him and the ball, but no consultation with assistant just immediately points to the spot.
Maybe some would prefer Mowbray back.
not good enough, bar the fiasco at the end we simply arent as good as we think we are
and by we i mean the players, they have a big time charlie attitude to our biggest games of the season – was watching it with a few and we all agreed we have the man utd attitude of where we think we can just turn up and win the game without actually trying (except for skoosh, charlie and joe) the rest were pathetically poor today
FF – go to london or wherever (nothing against the big lad, i just dont like loans)
Lustig – Why was he bought? looks no better than cha
CM – poor game but never gave up, still have a far better LB sitting on the bench
KW – shockingly bad, has to be punted
GL – as above (although his contracr is up, so some good news)
SB – poor game, but like CM never hid
Ki – shocking, cant beleive people rate this guy – get him sold
JL – poor game again never hid kept going
KC – its actually embarassing watching this “athlete” waddling through 90 mins
GS – thats more like the old George – hid the whole 90 mins
GH – – i would cash in on GH, one of the laziest ever to don the Hoops
AS – waster, seriously average footballer but epitomises everything about a big time charlie
Vic – weird sub to come on as a right back
Dylon Mc – only brigh spark we had and he was only on 8 minutes
Lenny – wrong again today mate – team was wrong, subs were late and weird – but you are still learning
bad bad day at the office and the norm for hampden these days
So we were blatantly robbed, a ludicrous decision then he doesn’t give a similar one in our box!
Ki has to score both of those, and Stokes missed a sitter too.
I said after the Killie game that Wilson is a liability and he proved that today, shocking defending. As for Lustig I do not rate him.
On another note, I would have thought Beattie would have had more dignity
HH
Well we have all manner of filth on Clyde
Ian McCall can hardly hide his delight today. Filthy creature. Making up lies about the two penalty decisions being completely different.
The ball rebounded off Joe’s leg and hit his hand and it was not in the often used unnatural position. Webster’s was indeed by his side but “by the letter of the law” as they are now fond of saying both either are or are not penalties. In both instances neither play knows anything about them but one was given, one was not and we know why.
Their hurt that their favoured filthy club are dying has spilled out and now halfwits like Dalziel are telling us Neil’s behaviour makes him nothing like Jock Stein or martin Oneill.
Did any of these peepel actually see how Jock Stein, Billy McNeill, Davie Hay, Tommy Burns, MON and WGS could lose it? Billy McNeill was once on the ptich remonstrating with a ref during a game never mind after it.
Clyde let one inbred on to say Neil should keep his head down and “know his place”
What has Scotland and 1950’s Alabama got in common I wonder?
If they had their way there would be separate drinking fountains in Glasgow.
Well enjoy your moment of keeping Timmy down Norris. You’ll be fed on succulent lamb on the after dinner circuit with your brethren soon enough.
Disgusting but entirely predictable.
One thing Neil Lennon has not grasped as manager and his players have not grasped – you need to be good enough to take the ref out of the equation – MON said if the league is close, Rangers get refereeing decisions that no other side get. Jock Stein knew this and had his men thus prepared. ALL Celtic managers are aware of it, Billy McNeill said we’d been cheated for 50 years (actually he is wrong, it is much longer).
Neil needs to get men in to do the job that needs to be done to take these MIB out of the equation.
As for the scum who say Celtic and their fans only complain about refs when we lose – no we don’t. We always complain but so does Alex Ferguson but he’s one of the peepel so he doesn’t need to keep his “head down”.
On a side note, I think an all Edinburgh final is a magnificent thing for the Scottish game. We cannot sit on these pages and berate the media and the animals for the Scottish football needs a strong OF nonsense if we deny the fact that an all Edinburgh final with Hibs trying to end their 110 year hoodoo against their biggest rivals is not box office and for the good of the game. Imagine Hibs win it. What a sight that will be.
Honours must be shared around in football and if we want a more competitive league and a more competitive game, we need results like today in the grand scheme of things. It is a pity that once again the final decisive factor in the game was the referee.
Regardless of how well you play you need referees to be honest and make the appropriate big calls.
Norris is the penalty kick king – guess who get the most from him? He saw his chance and he took it.
Celtic and Neil Lennon need to wise up to this pronto and get games to bed like Killie last week and by doing so take the likes of Norris out of the equation.
There are only so many times you can talk about corruption before you start sounding like an angry lone nut. There are only so many times you can talk about things being bent before people start calling you paranoid. There are only so many times you can rage about injustice before people start thinking it’s time the Eff Bee Eye had you under surveillance before you start stocking copies of Catcher in the Rye and practicing your target shooting.
There are only so many times you can watch the same thing happen over and over and over and over again before it ceases to shock you. There are only so many times you can see things go against you – those honest mistakes – before patterns start to emerge and you can join up the dots. There are only so many things which can happen in this way before outside agencies start looking at it and asking hard questions …. or so you would think.
They call paranoia “the Irish disease”. They call it that because it provides a convenient shield against the appearance of bias, against the appearance of bigotry, against the appearance of hate. Behind that wall, officials can hound Neil Lennon, they can victimise Neil Lennon, people can assault Neil Lennon and even try and kill Neil Lennon, and when we, the great unwashed, comment it is labelled paranoia, the disease of our forebears, for whom the purges, the burning, the killings, the land confiscations, the anti-Catholic laws and everything else were not real but the manifestations of a crazed mind-set.
Except, they were real. This is real. And just because we’re “paranoid” it doesn’t meant they’re not out to get us.
So, this is another Year of the Honest Mistakes. Another year in which the catalogue of “errors” grows ever larger. Where the persecution of Neil Lennon goes into high gear. The revenge of the established order, which we, in our impudence, decided to challenge and confront … and the reasons for doing it grow ever more apparent.
In Orwell’s “1984”, Winston Smith contemplated sanity. When the rest of the world thinks 2 + 2 = 5, is it sane or insane to be the one person holding out? Is it sane, or insane, to say 2 + 2 = 4, no matter what the rest of the world says, thinks or even believes? 2 + 2 DOES make 4, and as Winston Smith lies there he realises that sanity is NOT about the numbers … that in an insane world there can be sanity in being one mind standing alone, and we are not one mind but the great collective whole of the Celtic Family, and today, as before, we know the truth.
This is not paranoia. The pattern is too familiar, the evidence too clear. This is the result of a corrupt authority from a corrupt culture in a corrupt country, and it is not enough to say that, but we have to fight it and we have to work to reverse it, and we have to defeat it and destroy it as should have been done years ago by others, but who were either unable or unwilling to do it, and now it is up to us.
Days like today leave you in no doubt. This is not a footballing environment where we will ever get a fair crack of the whip. This is not an association where we will ever have friends in high places. This is not a culture or a country where we will ever be seen as equals, far less treated that way.
Word to our enemies. In the end, we do not seek equal treatment.
Why should we?
YOU ARE NOT OUR EQUALS. YOU ARE THE DREGS OF HUMANITY.
And today, of all days, I resolve myself to coming after you. To hounding you. To hunting you down. To destroying you and your corrupt association. To bring down the walls around you.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Tiocfaidh ár lá. Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.
Aidy
i am of course forgetting some semi finals ..ignore my nonsense
apologies
Thought Lustig, Ki and Commons were decent going forward.
Hooper again a no-show.
Lustig is weak in the tackle.
We NEED a top-drawer striker. Hooper will finish if given the chance but he rarely creates something out of nothing and the ball doesn’t stick up front.
We also need an experienced (and quality) head or two in the first team.
Cheated today but you have to expect that.
Disappointing day all round.
.
PFayr..
Jeezo l thought it was 3 out of 4..
Never Fancied us All Day..
Summa
Our team needs a sine of quality, how long have we known this.
Born 67
Agent Craig “Green and” Whyte!! on 15 April, 2012 at 16:03 said:
“Did the ref actually see the incident ……..”
That condition is not compulsory, you ought to know that by now !
So according to some – it doesn’t matter if
Black already on a yellow should be booked again on 2 occassions
Hearts get a penalty when ball to hand and Ledley can’t possibly get out the way
Ball to hand at the other end – nothing given
Fair enough?
Sine= spine
I’m not sure what upsets me most, how poorly we appear to play on the big occasions or the inevitability of a decision such as the penalty going against us. Overall however I have to accept we did not do enough to deserve to win and I simply wonder if I’d feel any better had the defeat simply hinged on the assistant referee getting the Gary Hooper decision right rather than how it did turn out. I feared the worst from early on when Hooper once again seemed to be in one of his “can’t be bothered” moods and Georgios was displaying his talent for finding every conceivable blind alley on the pitch. Ki’s headers against the post just emphasised the inevitability of it being another one of those days. Lustig it seems is going through the toughening up phase that newcomers to the SPL find difficult and his display only serves to remind us what a gem Adam Mathews is.
Ach well at least we may get to see some of the other prospects in the last few games. Pity there’ll be no final to look forward to. Still I’ll hope the Hibee’s finally end their jinx in the Cup.
….PFayr on 15 April, 2012 at 16:05 said:
No worries.
We are all obviously disappointed but I would respectfully suggest some Celts need to get some perspective here.
I am usually one of the first to complain about our players either not taking responsibility or not being prepared physically or psychologically.
However some posters are clearly making an accommodation for cheating refs in their appraisal of matches. Beware – because once you start making those kinds of allowances that road leads straight to a life of forelock tugging!
Today we were the better side. We weren’t great but we were not terrible either.
How many times have we been told “winning ugly” or “winning while not quite at your best” is a virtue? It was that kind of performance today – not great but still should have been good enough.
In a fair contest one team should not have to be 50% better than the other to win the game.
What happened in the 91st minute of the game today was a disgrace.
No one should forget that it was that man’s intervention (I won’t dignify him by calling him a referee) that was the main cause of defeat today.
Hail Hail
Can someone explain to me, What is a “big game”? The laptop loyal threw a few buzz words out there and as usual some of our support agree (the nodding dog csc)… Okay so we got beat in the league cup final, which was clearly influenced by the Establishment (refereeing wing)
We lost the Scottish cup SEMI final today… again by sheer coincidence influenced by the Establishment (refereeing wing)
Yes… We did lose to Ross county as we were not good enough on the day… however all teams… Barcelona, Manchester united etc all have off days
Please: SAY WHAT YOU THINK – NOT WHAT YOU READ!
Man U get another soft penalty…..Young goes down easily in the box again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wodF-3vxQhs&feature=related
Joe ledley @joe16led Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Can’t believe the decisions made on the pitch today. Was never a pen
The player involved speaks..
In December against hearts at home, a nothing pen given against us in the 90min.
LC Final 90min stonewall pen for us not given.
Today 90min nothing pen given against us.
Thats 3 shocking decisions all involving pens all in 90minutes of games, every wrong decision going against us.
According to some all Neil Lennons fault.
Some of our support deserve these ‘honest mistakes’…..support maybe the wrong word.
Aston Villa manager makes a mistake as Man Utd given a pen for diving……
.
AntrimKev..
GS – thats more like the old George – hid the whole 90 mins
..
Ehhhhh..He Was Subbed on the Hour..
Summa
Parkhead the fans story on LFCTV now. (After Hillsborough)
Didnt turn up yet again, had plently of time after their goal to go and win it but were clueless on and off the park.
Referee cheated but had Celtic turned up motivated and wanting to win as much as they did the referee wouldnt have had the chance to win it.
Lawwell has to go.
James Forrest – brilliant as always. Going by some of the comments on here, a sizeable percentage of our support are willing to put up with the blatant cheating and bias from the anti-Catholic institutions that permeate throughout this horrible, wretched coutry.
29TH APRIL 2012 – As soon as the hun game is over – Skysports is gone,and their pishy movie channel is being cancelled as well.
That squirrel-like creature Tanner & the tripe talking McCann were actually sitting in that studio laughing.
WTF do they take us for?
2010 Never Again
And so it goes on
Lenny, stop persevering with Wilson…please!
Izzy and Wanyama were available today
Joe ledley @joe16led Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Can’t believe the decisions made on the pitch today. Was never a pen
A total whitewash of a lead article 44 minutes before having a shot on goal does not reflect Celtic bossing Hearts
Anyway here we go again regarding penalties and referees, if Mr Lennon believes that a refereeing decision in the league cup final may have cost us a treble and declared so publicly maybe he should come and publicly apologise to the Celtic support for his decisions which have cost us a day at Hampden on 19 May . He mentioned last week of being proud to be following in the footsteps of Stein McNeil and O’Neil well if thinks he is that good he certainly is delusional,he is not even half the manager Strachan was.
I left Kilmarnock last week on the final whistle and did not get involved in the celebrations I am glad I did now because as far as I am concerned this years league title ,without the other two trophies ,is now worthless and I am afraid Mr Lennon is to blame and no one else
Bhoys the penalty award was a scandalous decision but once again I fear we have only ourselves to blame for losing. If we are honest Hoops goal was offside albeit not by much but he was still offside. But at that point shouldn’t we have been playing against 10 men long before that as Black deliberately handled the ball not long after being booked and as such should have received a mandatory yellow for hand ball and then sent off? Was Joe booked for handball? I didn’t notice through the red mist that engulfed me after the penalty was awarded.
We dominated the 1st half with70% of possession but with only 1 shot on target in 40 minutes. What is the point of dominating a game when you lack any kind of goal scoring threat? It is not as if we were bombarding the Hearts keeper with shots. I do not know what is wrong with our team’s mentality? 1 week we can destroy teams the next we run around with seemingly no idea of what to do with the ball when we get it. Our defence was a shambles and seemed to panic every time Hearts came near our penalty area. Our superb support knew something was amiss today and as a result were unusually quiet. Top teams who dominate possession punish opponents and we abjectly failed to do so today. No excuse for a packed Hearts defence we should have had planned on their doing this. However when we did get a rare scoring opportunity our profligacy was beyond a joke. Twice KI contrived to hit the woodwork when faced with an open goal, Stokes lobbed the ball into the air a metre from goal when all it required was a tap in. In contriving to miss the scoring opportunities we allowed the ref to be in a position where a single crucial decision would cost us the game, he knew it and took every advantage of the fact and punished uppity Timmy accordingly.
It is only my opinion but I do not believe this team will not fare well in Europe without the addition of at least 1 quality striker and 2 quality centre backs. Let’s hope PL and the board are in a position to support Lenny and meet our aspirations in the transfer window.
Sick as the proverbial parrot CSC
I predicted last Thursday that Norris would give a dodgy penalty to hearts on CQN. His sport for the Huns in terms of penalties is obnoxious 5 in 3 games at one point ; on the previous match thread a poster has given even more damning evidence.
My points last Thursday and Friday were directed at John Fleming ; he is still following the approach of his Lord and Master Hugh Dallas of Bonkle. I have had some snippets from within SFA football staff , to know that Fleming is no friend of Celtic ( cannot name individual publicly , although I expect him to leave for a bigger role somewhere else soon).
Mark Wotte has been a breath of fresh air for the youth development side of the game. We all know that the refeerees has been a cesspit of cheats over the years. Rather than promote the Dallas groomed Fleming an outsider without bias to any team ( or against one team ) should have been brought in. Regan missed a real opportunity here and probably shows he is being outmanoeuvred by tax cheats like RC Ogilvie.
Fleming will be proud of what Norris did today and Dallas will be chuffed to bits doe both of them.
Disappointed like everyone else. We should have won but the jambos hung in there.
We can look at the ref’s performance but we should look at our own failings first.
We failed to take our chances and failed to impose ourselves for much of the second half.
For the second time this season we conceded a very, very soft penalty in the last minute. Coincidental that the jambos were involved on both occasions but the eagerness with which the MIBs gave questionable decisions will not come as a surprise.
I look forward to these decisions being evened out but I feel we didn’t do enough to win the game.
PF ayr
3 in 5 surely?
In the last two seasons we’ve played at hampden 7 times, winning 3 semi finals and a final, losing two finals and a semi final today
Not too bad, but this season a treble should have been won as we should have beaten Kilmarnock and Hearts
Oh hum
Joe ledley @joe16led Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
This Sums it up, he thought it hit victors arm
Norris gets the new eyes in the back of my head not seeing properly award..FFS
iki on 15 April, 2012 at 16:06 said:
Agent Craig “Green and” Whyte!! on 15 April, 2012 at 16:03 said:
“Did the ref actually see the incident ……..”
That condition is not compulsory, you ought to know that by now !
Yes i sometimes forget about that ;)
Message to SPL/SFA et all:
Kilmarnock win League Cup.
Hearts v Hibs in Scottish Cup final.
Celtic win League.
We don’t need no stinkin’ Ragers.
Total dive by Ashley Young. Theatrical as you like. Pen ManUtd.