SPL Saturday January 18th 2004

Hearts 0

Celtic 1

0:1 Petrov 27

Att: 13,753

MIB: Kenny Clark

Celtic: Douglas Varga Balde McNamara Agathe Sutton Lennon Petrov Pearson Larsson Hartson
subs
Beattie for Hartson 81

Winning this game was almost as good as beating the Orcs, such is the bitterness and bile that runs off the Gorgie terraces. The aftermath and recriminations about coin throwing. Spitting and elbowing pale into insignificance in comparison to Auld Reekie's resident Inspector Clouseau, a.k.a. Craig Levein, a man whose investigative abilities, following an allegation of elbowing against Hartson, are about as well honed as his coaching abilities. In other words, fit only for Swynecastle.

The game was a brutal 10 yellow card encounter as the maroon Orcs clogged Celtic at every wheel and turn.

Douglas performed well in the early stages as the Sieve held out against Farts pressure. When Stan silenced the Jambo bambos on 27 minutes - put through by Larsson he nutmegged Gordon with a cool finish - the writing was on the wall for a kicking match.

Larsson had a couple of opportunities to kill off the game, but seemed more content to provide for others than finish Hearts off himself. Hopefully, this wasn't a result of Hack speculation about his future. Both he and Beattie, on as a late sub for Hartson (another who wasn't having his best ever game in the Hoops) squandered gilt-edged chances.

Celtic finally weathered the storm and earned three valuable points, setting up a terrific return encounter in the Cup.

The furore over the incidents in this game is a valuable insight into the SPL. It just hasn't changed. Rab D gets coined, but no arrest is made despite cameras and a massive police and steward presence. Sutton narrowly escapes a similar missile, but it's largely ignored. Instead, all of the focus is on a spitting incident, which was even more deplorable as it was by a so-called Celtic fan, and the Hartson incident, which Levein alleges was captured on a poor quality camera system used to film the match for training purposes. The quality of the images which the Hacks have gleefully printed speaks volumes about training at Swynecastle, as they are poorer than most CCTV recordings.

We await with baited breath to see what will happen about the coin hitting Rab D, bearing in mind what happened when Pooh Dallas was on the receiving end.