Celtic blitzed into the lead after an incredible opening two minutes of tonight’s SPL encounter at Tynecastle and went on to record one of their most impressive performances in years.
Hearts were miles behind the visitors in every department but could have taken the lead after a minute when Andy Webster was left unattended at a corner kick and his downward header was met inside the six yard box by Stephen Elliot who knocked the ball goal-ward. Joe Ledley intercepted on the line but the ball bounced net-side. As Elliot prepared to celebrate the left hand of Fraser Forster appeared from nowhere to remove any possibility of the officials having sight of the ball. Comments on Celtic Quick News suggest it looked a goal at the time and replays did little to contradict that view.
If the never-give-up spirit is alive inside Fraser Forster his captain was no less focussed tonight. Georgios Samaras cleared the ball out of the box and Scott Brown turned defence into attack with a deft flick on the middle of the field. Brown fed James Forrest who whipped in a cross that rebounded off Samaras, now inside the Hearts box to Scott Brown, who had jetted into the area. The captain steadied before shooting low past MacDonald in the Hearts goal.
The game was only two minutes old but we already knew we were in for a night to remember.
Full of confidence Scott Brown tried a decent effort from 30 yards that went narrowly over but Celtic were not to be denied a second for long. On 20 minutes Charlie Mulgrew’s deep corner was knocked back in by Forrest to Victor Wanyama, who turned and scooped the ball high into the net.
Celtic were motoring and looked streets ahead of their hosts as the reverential home support looked on.
By now Hearts looked more likely to score into their own goal. On three occasions in the opening 30 minutes MacDonald had to scramble across his goal under pressure from his own team. Zaliukas came closest to knocking the ball into his own net but his ‘clearance’ went narrowly wide.
Just after the 30 minute mark Scott Brown robbed Zaliukas as he took the ball out of defence and fed Samaras. Georgios hit the bye-line and send in a deep cross which hung at the back post just long enough for Joe Ledley to stretch and nod home. Celtic were 0-3 up and already guaranteed to move four points clear at the top of the table.
The fourth goal came on 60 minutes after one of the finest moves of the game saw Matthews feed Hooper and the striker tee-up Joe Ledley whose shot hit the post and was turned behind. Mulgrew’s resultant corner was met by Victor Wanyama and could have bounced over the line but Gary Hooper was on hand to clear up any doubt to hit the roof of the net from a distance no farther than 6 inches.
Late on Kelvin Wilson cleared out of the Celtic box to Samaras who was 40 yards from his own goal. The Greek international ran 50 yards before testing MacDonald from distance.
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SofTunis -the Guy Clark tribute album ‘This One’s for Him’, is worth checking out.
There must be something in the Texas water [ or oil] that produces great songwriters.
When Celtic buy a player from another Scottish team they cannot be accused of South African Affirmative Purchasing. The other team always has the option to tell Celtic where to shove their money. When it comes to pre-contracts, under what circumstances would an individual throw away the opportunity of playing for the premier team in Scotland and also possibly triple his wages in doing so. It is not Celtic’s financials that makes them strong, that is a consequence of the perennial commitment from their supporters; it is the supporters that prolong the Celtic alure. Other teams supporters ought to have a good look around them, and in the mirror too, reflect a wee bit about why their own clubs are so weak (subjective) before they give out too often about the pull of Celtic. Celtic gives these players the opportunity to grow, it is not Celtic’s fault if the playersbrought in fail to meet the demands of wearing a Celtic strip in front of a Celtic crowd.
TheGreenManalishi(WithTheTwoProngedCrown),
Apologies – I misread it.
I’m sure we had other shots that their keeper saved – or were they all from his own players?
Amazing reaction/agility from FF, when the ball bounces off Joe L at the Hearts non goal, he is standing upright but gets down to scoop away in a micro second.
Jelly & Ice Cream it is, there is a Celtic Jelly believe it or not click below
http://www.jellyvision.co.uk/jelly-moulds-shop/football-jellies.php
http://www.jellyvision.co.uk/jelly-moulds-shop/st_patricks-jellies.php
jellyandicecreamcsc
Disappointed in that the Brown skill before the first goal wasn’t highlighted more.
Beautiful play.
My last word about Clyde last night.
Loved the call from Frank who demanded an apology from Hugh for his use of the term paranoid over the years after two Celtic fans got pulled up earlier in the week for using the medical/physical conditions of blindness and alzheimers is an innocent enough metaphor/similie in the points they made in their calls,Hugh was faltering for an answer because Frank said using Paranoid schizophrenia was just as important a medical condition,Hugh was reduced to attacking Frank and calling him paranoid,that was only to be expected from him but it was Delahunt that got me before he cut Frank off saying paranoid in that context was in common usage.
Jim,so is using the term blind in a metaphorical context,so what’s the difference?
Well done Frank,Hugh Keevins still needs to apologize to families affected by paranoid schizophrenia.
Lisb\o/nbhoy who thinks Neil Lenn(‘0’)n is a legend says:
9 February, 2012 at 09:54
————
Thanks, mate.
Could Saturday morning in Fife be McCoist’s “St Mirren”? He may survive it though down to the fact he has 3 chins to big Mowbray’s 1!
a bit off topic, but where i come from its probably a 70-30 split favouring the hun, the area im from is spot on but if you wander into the town you see them wearing the tops, tracksuit tops, tracksuit bottoms, scarfs or rucksacks etc etc
i get the train to belfast to work in the morning and across on the other platform there is one of them that goes to tech and has everything on him, coat, scarf (a half and half thing with rangers and the steeple young defenders on it for some reason) and the rucksack – but today everything was northern ireland
and if i was to wander into the town all the said huns will be wearing northern ireland gear today instead of rangers
i hate northern ireland as well but it brings a smile to my face when i see them wearing it, it means we are going well (very f in well) and they are pash (and it also shows up the myth that they are “loyal” to rangers)
altogether now “were not brazil, were norn iron” ha ha
4 shots on target ?
We scored 4 goals – I presume each of those was on target. And Sammy had a rasper of a 30 yards short saved by the keeper.
Somebody at the BBC can’t count…
googybhoy ♥ Celtic and Integrity says:
9 February, 2012 at 10:23
Not sure any club buys other players to weaken the opposition.
Seems like a flawed waste of money. Moneybags like Chelsea and City.have not even done that.
His club should not sell to the opposition.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I agree. Fans of other clubs do not and this has been put to me many times – I cannot think of any examples though, that might back up his suggestion that we’ve bought players from other SPL clubs that have not had much game time.
Frankly, I find the notion quite absurd.
We’ve bought two players this season and much of our first team squad is made up of free transfers, yet he and many others would have me believe that we’d spend money on players then not play them, simply to weaken the opposition.
I do believe, however, that another club may have done this in the past – there was a definite attitude at that club that nobody else would or should win anything. This has been well documented in various embarrassing episodes by the Scottish media (succulent lamb etc). I would not put it past Murray to have played percentages with people’s careers and other clubs in order to achieve the moonbeams of success he so craved.
Morning all,
Not wishing to sound like a moaner (especially after a brilliant performance) but did anyone else notice Broonie,s rampaging was leaving Matthews
exposed early in the game??
I couldn’t quite work out where SB was playing!
Thought Matthews looked like a gem of a player
Great performance and result last night.
Who remembers half time at Kilmarnock in November now
Oh ye of little faith.
When the history of this treble winning season is written I hope no one forgets Anthony Stokes and the big part he played in our comeback that day.Saved Neils job and our season
Onwards and upwards
So minty put a clause in a contract ?
RTC … Undercover reporter of the year
Great performance, everyone played well.
However, not to sound like a broken record, but our most important game of the season so far is Inverness on Saturday!!!
Real Madrid still top football rich list
All of the 20 clubs in the list are from the “big five” European leagues
Real Madrid’s revenues of 480m euros (£401m) topped the Deloitte league table of the world’s richest football clubs for the seventh straight year.
Deloitte’s Football Money League, based on data for season 2010/11, says Real will match Manchester United’s eight-year record if they stay top next year.
Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona remained in second place, ahead of Manchester United, who stayed third.
Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Chelsea are fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
The top seven clubs stayed in exactly the same positions as in the previous year.
Aston Villa fell out of the league entirely, failing to hold on to their 20th position and leaving English clubs holding six places out of the top 20.
Liverpool fell one spot to ninth place in this year’s list.
All of the 20 clubs in the list are from the “big five” European leagues, with Italy contributing five clubs, Germany four, Spain three and France down to two, from three in the previous year.
Together, the top 20 clubs earned 4.4bn euros, a rise of 3% on the previous year.
Nine of the 20 clubs saw their revenues grow in double digits in 2010/11.
Although seven of them saw a fall in revenue, the authors said that this was mostly down to weaker on-pitch performances, causing falls in ticket sales and merchandising, rather than the effect of weakness in eurozone economies.
Barcelona’s shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation is worth about 30m euros per season, according to the report.
This, coupled with the club’s 3.5m-euro prize money for winning the Fifa World Cup, may enable the Spanish club to catch up with its arch-rival Real next year, the report suggests.
Both Spanish clubs are approaching record revenue levels of 500m euros and may top this in the next few years, says the report.
German club Schalke leapt six places to 10th after a strong performance in last year’s season, which took the club to the semi-final in the Uefa Champions League.
In next year’s report, however, Schalke will be edged out of the top 10 by Manchester City, say the report’s authors, after considering City’s heavy financial support from Abu Dhabi investors and its participation in the 2011/12 Champions League.
ESPN stats have us with 8 shots at goal, none on target and their keeper made no saves.
:-o
SuperSutton says:
9 February, 2012 at 10:57
On the bright side it makes our goals per shot ratio better.
LB
DBBIA —–
Guy Clark ——
Yes —— a pal sent me a tape. Prejudiced me was worried when i saw that Lyle Lovett was on it ——but -I like it. A worthy tribute to a great writer /storyteller——–
Strange things have been happening here——–
Heard Gene Clark’s fabulous – No Other- on a Catania radio station. Followed by the inescapable Zucchero.
Went for a espresso in Siracusa and the barman was watching an OGWT DVD Boxset —-up came Emmylou Harris with Rodney Crowell on guitar . His Stars on the water 45 is one of the truly great modern country 45’s ..
Etna is erupting . Catania Airport shut.
Morning lads and lassies, great win for the mighty last night.
Our team is getting stronger and stronger, keep this team together for 4 years and we will go on to big things.
Regarding the hertz goal, why do they show the favourable angle instead of post side hmmm, not to worry in the words of Gordon Daziel it evens itself out as they say.
When we get a decision its a close one to call, but when they get a call its blatant.
Well Bhoys how good was that last night…Nirvana…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
When we buy players from another team we pay cash (maybe on terms but we pay cash); that cash is very welcome to the other clubs; often it is the difference between them balancing the books or not. The other teams do not take our cash because they want it, of course they want it, they take it because they need it. To get our money they are required to give us something in exchange. What they do with the money is their business but they could, if they were of a mind to, invest it back into the football department.
We don’t weaken other teams by buying their players, if they don’t invest the money they get from us back into the team then they weaken themselves by selling us their players. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
Credit to Hibs for bringing through so many gifted players a whilst ago, how much did their club make from Celtic and Rangers… a lot. Hibs don’t seem to have a problem with the taxman.
just watching the highlights of the game on bbc
when hearts “scored” im 99.9% sure the music came on over the tannoy – you know that pash when a goal is scored and they play music to celebrate the goal?
but on the bbc its not there – was i dreaming that or has the bbc wiped that to try and make it less funnier?
Jobo Baldie says:
9 February, 2012 at 10:27
Kittoch,
don’t listen to that St Martin’s Bhoy ;-)
Your best so far was “…and that he once won an argument with a woman…”
You’re right Jobo! I must have missed that one.
.
WhatsTheStars..
I Have been thinking of Anthony Stokes..All Day..He really has Matured in the Last 12 Months and Knows he WILL Get the Chance again l Don’t think he was a Squad player last Season..(Moaning to Papers Etc)..
He will Get his Chance..Lenny Now knows the Games that Suit him..Saturday will be 1..
Summa
antrimkev says:
9 February, 2012 at 11:14
From the BBC website…..
“With the stadium announcer playing music for a home goal, Forrest immediately broke away and fed Georgios Samaras inside the penalty area. The Greece striker mis-controlled the ball but Brown was well place to pick up the scraps and thunder an unstoppable shot past Jamie MacDonald”
“Mis-controlled”?? The cheeky……….
St Martin’s Bhoy says:
9 February, 2012 at 11:17
on the highlights bit they show the whole clip from Hearts’ “goal” until Broonie’s finish and they definatley have taken that wee bit out
The SC QF against DU will now be played on Sunday 11th March with a 1.15 ko
FF want Brown reported and banned for his celebration last night….
antrimkev says:
9 February, 2012 at 11:14
I was there and they definitely played the music…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Lennybhoy
Message passed to CRC during game last night re: Saturday
..
RougueLeader..
Why was Skoosh Pointing to the Top of the Hill..:O)
Summa ft TaxManComingOverTheHillCSC
Summa of Sammi
Re Stokes
I agree,he has matured as a player.
To be honest I never rated him (purely because he knocked us back to go to Sunderland that time)
But I have been very impressed this year and he possibly scored Celtics most important goals of the season that day at Kilmarnock.
Its easy for players to play well and try hard when your team is cruising to victory.But when the chips are down and your team is in a seemingly hopeless position (3 down to Kilmarnock at half time for example) thats when you sort out the men from the boys.
Anyway the whole SQUAD is playing well at the moment.Lets hope we can keep all the players happy and willing to fight for places
Look at some of the lads who didnt play last night,Kayal,Ki,Commons,McCourt (The forgottem man ?)
Sammi’s controlled lay off for Brooooonie’s goal was class.
Apologies Paul:
That was the unedited list.
antrimkev,
The music at the goal was both heard and mentioned by the Radio Scotland commentators
KITALBA
That was fairly comprehensive,but I think you’ll need to be on the ball to keep it up to date!