SPL Sunday January 1st 2006

Hearts 2

Celtic 3

1:0 Jankauskas 6
2:0 Pressley 8
2:1 Pearson 55
2:2 McManus 87
2:3 McManus 89

Att: 17,358

MIB: Iain Brines

Celtic: Boruc Telfer Balde McManus Wallace Petrov Lennon Nakamura Thompson Hartson Maloney

subs Pearson for Petrov 50
McGeady for Thompson 62

A happy New Year to Mr. Romanov and a right kick in the Baltics to the Lithuanian's lapdogs.

This could have been the Nightmare after Christmas, as the Sieve decided to put on a Panto. And so commenced a farce worthy of a man named Rix. Mc Manus decided he was playing the rear end of Stephen Pressley, and proceeded to drop manure all around the box. He may look older than his years, but McManus still often plays like a teenager. To keep such a performance for Swynecastle could only but impress Graham Rix.

Yet it had all started so well, with Celtic on top and rolling through the Farts' defence faster than the tanks into Talin. Then Stan caught a sniff of the vodka blowing of the Swynecastle Steppe and he missed a sitter, heading past from 6 yards.

The price for this profligacy was a stint in the Gulag. Cue the loss of two first half goals through comical defending, which had Strachan bouncing off the ground like Jimmy Krankie stoating off a Beanstalk.

The first was a Wallace own goal after Hartley strolled past a puffing Lennon to cross for Jankauskus. Shortly afterwards Elvis headed in to make it two-nil before Celtic had time to draw breath.

The Hoops did rally a bit, but by half-time it might have been 3:0 but for Boruc. The whistle couldn't come quick enough.

Ding ding! Round two and the second forty -five saw Petrov hobble off with a pulled hamstring to be replaced by Pearson. His mobility threw the Farts and provided a quick goal to sow the seeds of a recovery. A siege of the Jambos' goal then commenced, as the Hoops flagged a warning to the Tzar of Smug in the Swynecastle stand.

Maloney was denied a stonewall penalty when he was pulled down in the box, but his efforts were eventually rewarded.

The balance of the game tilted as Fyssas was sent off after 75 minutes for preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity as Maloney again went down on the edge of the 18 -yard box. Justice in the form of an equalizer wasn't immediate.

The Celtic Cavalry took their time to arrive and it was the last five minutes before a superbly delivered Nakamura free kick found McManus for a redeeming leveller.

It just got better as the Farts repeated the trick and another Nakamura cross set up a second for McManus and Celtic's winner.

Hearts' response was to let Hartley kick Wallace from behind off the ball, an assault for which he went unpunished.

All to no avail. The Maroon balloon appears to have popped and Celtic are clear at the top of the SPL for 2006, while Vlad the Wailer moans that it's a Bolshevik plot to deny his team the title.