SPL Saturday August 11th

Celtic 2

Hearts 0

1:0 Larsson (45); 2:0 Larsson (64)

Att: 58,423

MIB: Willie Young

Celtic: Douglas; Tebily, Sutton, Mjallby; Agathe, Lambert, Lennon, Moravcik, Petta (Guppy 70); Hartson, Larsson (Maloney 70)

Incredible! The impossible dream has been achieved. Craig Levein has defied those who doubted him and managed to field a team even more boring awful and negative than the legendary Motherwell team of the 80s.

If you were managing a team who constantly bang on about being the third force in the league would you line up with everyone behind the ball when you know that the opposition have been forced to play their centre forward in defence? Hard to imagine the likes of Leishman or Bonnetti doing that.

The first half was reminiscent of the Ali v Foreman Rumble in the Jungle - Hearts simply curled up on the ropes and hoped we would punch ourselves out. We didn't. But it took a long time for us to land a decent punch, and unfortunately our new £6m forward must take the blame.

Hartson doesn't look anywhere near fit, his running was laboured, and his first touch wasn't that hot, but it's early days. He should still have buried his free header. As it was he didn't even hit the target.

With the first half into injury time (always a feature of Hearts games) Larsson was wrestled to the ground (incredibly some in the media questioned whether this was a foul). He stepped up himself and took advantage of some classic keeping by auntie Nellie to give us a much deserved and long overdue lead.

The second half, we assumed, would see Hearts push out a bit to try and steal a point. Not a bit of it. Apparently a low scoring defeat was considered a moral victory by the Hearts management. Hey, ambitious or what?

The second came from the left boot of Larsson via a Tebily pass, and a Hartson dummy. Three points and on we march.