After an impressive win at Easter Road in the Edinburgh derby on Sunday, Hearts had the daunting task of facing Celtic at Tynecastle in an evening kick off three days later.
I’d been so busy at work for the preceding few days that all thoughts of a pre-match drink went out the window. Indeed, it took me all my time to get home from work and ready to meet my dad in order to get a lift to the ground at about 6:45pm.
We made the short drive to Saughton Hall and parked close to the Murrayfield back pitches before walking through Sainsbury’s car park to the vicinity of the ground. As we walked up Wheatfield Street and onto Gorgie Road we were met by the usual tense atmosphere that precedes any of Hearts games against one of the Old Firm. This evening’s atmosphere seemed particularly uneasy. Celtic’s previous game had seen The Green Brigade (Celtic Ultras) unveiling a series of banners protesting against their clubs decision to embroider a poppy symbol upon the Celtic shirt in support of Poppy Scotland.
If you don’t understand the reasons why certain elements of the Celtic support would find this inappropriate or offensive then do some background reading, I’m certainly not going into it here.
Given Hearts long history with The Great War and the story of McCrae's Battalion many Hearts fans required no further excuse to tell Celtic supporters what they thought of them and many did so in terms which hardly implied Hearts had a support bereft of any bigotry. I suspect that the irony of this may be lost on them.
One noticable flashpoint came as a Celtic supporter’s bus, presumably running late, choose to access the away end via Gorgie Road rather than driving directly to Roseburn. The traffic on Gorgie Road was extremely congested causing the bus to move very slowly alongside rival fans walking on the pavement. As soon as this became apparent, what was previously harmless gesticulating between the Celtic fans on the bus and the Hearts fans on the street became a bit ore serious. Fuelled, one imagined, by the recent poppy controversy, Celtic fans began to beat the bus windows whilst singing republican songs and chants in support of the IRA whilst Hearts supported angrily responded with abuse of their own. Several police officers attempted to intervene but there was very little they could do once the bus was stuck in traffic. Why they don’t insist on away supporter’s buses driving directly to the designated parking area at Roseburn is anyone’s guess, particularly when it comes to the more 'troublesome' fixtures.
Ultimately the incident was little more than ugly noise. There were Hearts supporters outside the main stand who claimed bottles and other objects had been indiscriminately launched out of the bus’s sky light windows, however, having not witnessed this personally I can neither confirm or deny such claims.
So, on to the game itself. I’ll be honest I was worried that Hearts could be on the end of a drubbing, especially as the match came on the back of Celtic inflicting Aberdeen’s record defeat upon them. These matches, however, are often played in an almost derby-like atmosphere so a surprising result can often ensue. Whilst Celtic and Rangers’ domestic dominance will always mean they have infinitely more resources than the other clubs, Hearts like the rest of the SPL are more than capable of beating the Old Firm on their day.
The Celtic support begins to fill the Roseburn Stand.
The teams line up before kick off.
Banned from the touchline, Jim Jeffries took his place in the stand.
Indeed Hearts managed to ride out the initial wave of attacking play by Celtic and indeed could have taken the lead when Stephen Elliot headed off the bar after meeting Templeton's cross-goal shot. Shortly before the half-hour mark Hearts did, however, get their goal albeit with the help of a heavy deflection off Celtic defender Majstorovic after Skacel rolled a free kick to Ian Black who took a shot at goal from 30 yards.
Interestingly, shortly after this Gary Hooper was booked for diving as he went to ground when Kello raced off his line after Hooper managed to get in behind the home side's back four.
Looking towards the corner of the Wheatfield and Gorgie Stands.
John Robertson made an appearance at half time.
The second half started scrappily but exploded to life when Celtic midfielder Ledley was shown a straight red card for a two-footed lunge on Black. While Celtic boss Neil Lennon decided how to reorganise his 10 men, Maloney lost the ball in midfield, Skacel collected it and raced down the left channel. Skacel then slid a pass across the box for Templeton who fired the ball under Forster from 10 yards.
Looking towards a packed Wheatfield Stand.
Celtic had a stonewall penalty turned down when Ryan Stevenson handled in the box. Celtic boss Lennon was sent to the stand for his angry protestations over referee Craig Thomson's decision, much to the delight of the home support, who launched into a rendition of ‘It’s a conspiracy’ sung to the tune of La Donna e Mobile.
Some Hearts supporters made their feeling clear over the recent poppy controversy.
Celtic were unable to offer much more in the way of an attacking threat, allowing Hearts to eased to what was ultimately a comfortable victory.
After a tense game, the police felt it necessary to seperate home and away supporters with use of a temporary barrier across McLeod Street.
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