CELTIC complained about the height of the Tynecastle grass then proceeded to take a lawnmower to Hearts’ unbeaten Gorgie record. Having become the first team on domestic duty to take a scythe to Brendan
Rodgers’ invincibles on a barren pitch last December, yesterday it was the turn of the newly-crowned Ladbrokes Premiership champions to cut their opponents down to size.
Enjoying themselves in the long grass like Theresa May in fields of wheat, they cut Hearts’ grass for their first win at the other side of the M8 all season long, a 3-1 win which brought their opponents’ 14-match unbeaten run since they uprooted from Murrayfield in mid-season to an end.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Length of Tynecastle grass embarrassed both sets of players
Whether they had grounds for complaint when they accused their hosts of deliberately keeping the grass long and refusing to water it to prevent them from passing the ball out from the back, the post-match press conference here became akin to an episode of Gardeners’ Question Time.
From the moment Hearts players were booed by their own fans for forming a guard of honour, so much was going on here that you needed eyes in the back of your head to keep up with it all. Bobby Madden doesn’t have that, of course, but the sticky playing surface and the match official’s general inclination to let the play flow made for precisely the kind of feisty contest which both sets of supporters had seemingly come to see. Members of the visiting support yesterday included Kieran Tierney.
Scott Brown and Steven Naismith are time served when it comes to this kind of Scottish football scrapping and it wasn’t long before the PFA Scotland player of the year was trying to get the referee’s attention to show a stud mark which he claimed had been inflicted by the former Rangers midfielder.
Read more: Tam McManus: Bang the drum loud, our game is great right now
Apparently the victim of a stamp on the calf on the far touchline, as it happened Brown was also lying prone on the ground when Hearts opened the scoring, after another collision with Naismith, this time under a high ball in midfield.
Lewis Moore, making inroads off the left, tamed the ball well to direct a pass in space for Kyle Lafferty, and the former Rangers striker smashed a right foot volley through Bain. A mischievous celebration took him round past the visiting fans, receiving a hail of soft drinks and goodness knows what for his trouble. Some missile or other was thrown at Mikael Lustig as early as the opening minutes; another flurry came from the Hearts fans to mark Celtic’s equaliser.
With his players having spent the week in Tenerife larking around poolside to Zombie Nation, you might have thought Rodgers’ side had bigger fish to fry, but they clearly had designs on a revenge mission from their 4-0 reverse here earlier in the season. Only Craig Gordon and Tierney were ostensibly rested from their strongest line-up.
Read more: Could fear of being axed by Steven Gerrard help Rangers pip Aberdeen and Hibs to second spot?
Hearts started the match with intent and only a controversial intervention from Madden prevented them from taking the lead before they did. Don Cowie’s corner made it all the way to the far post, where it was forced in by Souttar, but the referee chalked it off on the grounds that Scott Bain had been impeded by Ross Callachan, a decision which mystified Levein. The Hearts manager was also miffed that three of his players were booked early by the generally laissez-faire Madden.
Celtic had uncharacteristically folded in that last meeting between the teams here, but their arrears lasted only four minutes here. Olivier Ntcham swung over a free-kick and Dedyrck Boyata directed a perfect looping header into Jon McLaughlin’s top corner, no mean feat considering it appeared that Lafferty was about to kick his head off his shoulders at the time.
Read more: Sean Goss expects new Rangers manager Steven Gerrard to lure top English talent to Ibrox next season
The teams went in level at half-time but that didn’t last long. Moussa Dembele, who had pounced on a rare mistake from Souttar to clip the ball off the top of the crossbar in the first half, got his goal after young Moore overplayed on the long grass. Lustig robbed him, Tom Rogic swept a pass out wide, and Dembele made the finish look easy. The Frenchman was taken off early, a necessary precaution after the hamstring injury sustained by Odsonne Edouard which may bring his season to an early end.
Hearts pushed Celtic back, but in truth Celtic looked more likely to score. A Christophe Berra clearance struck Rogic and a post, then subs Stuart Armstrong and Scott Sinclair combined, the former giving the latter a tap-in. As the Celtic bus left the stadium, there was the unmistakeable sound of the Hearts lawnmowers springing to life . . .
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