| Match Pictures | Matches: 1996 – 1997 | 1996-1997 Pictures |
Trivia
- Hearts had four sent off in their previous fixture – a 3-0 defeat to Rangers in the Premier League at Ibrox – and were thus without Weir, Ritchie, Bruno and Pointon. Celtic’s previous game was the 2-1 last minute Premier victory over Division Dundee Utd which saw Brian O’Neil red carded.
- McStay (long term ankle injury), Stubbs (ankle ligaments), O'Donnell (torn hamstring) and McKinlay (knee surgery) were all out injured.
- A win bonus row had just surfaced with the players threatening to pull out of all commercial and social appearances. Fergus McCann was refusing to meet the players and publicly refusing to comment saying that it was a contractual matter. The players also threatened to blank the sponsors shirt logo prior to this game, the issue being resolved at the last minute. Burns apologised to the support after the game for the greed of the players. The issue continued to rumble on for another week with the press making the most of it.
Review
0 – 0 at full time, a goal from Robertson 10 minutes before penalties kicked in puts the Bhoys out; Hearts played with 10 men from 61 minutes when Salvatori was sent off. Peter Grant was sent off in the extra time period on 93 minutes.
Teams
Hearts:
Rousset, McManus, Naysmith, Salvatori, McPherson, Thorn, Thomas, Mackay, Robertson, Cameron, McCann. Subs: Goss, Fulton, NU Sub: Colquhoun.
Scorer: Robertson (110)
Celtic:
Marshall, Boyd, Mackay, McNamara, Hughes, Grant, Di Canio, Gray (Donnelly, ), Van Hooijdonk, Thom (Wieghorst, ), Cadete.
NU Sub: McLaughlin
Yellow Cards: Thorn, Salvatori (Hearts), Boyd, Di Canio, Hughes, Grant, Van Hooijdonk
Red Cards: Salvatori, (Hearts, 61, 2 yellows ), Grant (Celtic, 93, 2 yellows)
Referee: K Clark (Paisley).
Attendance: 14,422
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
- Match Report from the Scotsman
Robertson stuns Celtic
Hearts 1 Robertson (110)
Celtic 0 (after extra time; 0-0 at 90min)
A FAMOUS victory for Hearts; an ignominious departure for Celtic. In last night's Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final tie at Tynecastle, the Parkhead side were no match for their opponents who had lost four first choices after Saturday's incredible events at Ibrox, and were reduced to ten men after 61 minutes when Stefano Salvatori was sent off.
The Glasgow side's 14-year separation from the trophy never looked likely to be ended by a display which came on a day that had cast a shadow over the club.
By publicly rowing with the club's management over bonus payments before the game, Celtic's players had made a rod for their own backs.
Hearts applied their form of corporal punishment through John Robertson, who has frequently stated that no game is complete until he has made a contribution. He scored 20 minutes into extra time, putting his team into tomorrow night's semi-final draw with a low shot after Steve Fulton and Neil McCann had conspired to put him clear of markers inside the penalty box.
It was a remarkable result for an Edinburgh side depleted by their own intemperate behaviour at the weekend.
The sides had been taken into an extra 30 minutes on a night when indiscipline belatedly took the place of goals.
A total of six players, Andy Thorn and Salvatori from Hearts, along with John Hughes, Paulo Di Canio, Peter Grant and Tom Boyd of Celtic, were yellow-carded.
Salvatori and Grant failed to see out all of the game after the former was sent off in regulation time and the latter was red-carded during the period added on.
Di Canio was fortunate not to join them, having for a few seconds been a loose cannon as he pursued the referee while team-mates tried to restrain him after his caution.
It was obvious Hearts' blood would be stirred by the residual resentment felt over Saturday's costly exercise at Ibrox.
Manager Jim Jefferies took out some extra insurance, though, by hiring a defender for the day. Thorn, whose last port of call was Wimbledon and who will sign for Manchester City tomorrow, made an emergency detour to Edinburgh to help a Tynecastle side riven by the loss of four automatically-suspended players.
Gary Naysmith, a teenager, was brought in as well, but Celtic looked more perturbed than Hearts.
Playing in central midfield, Pierre van Hooijdonk, who had scored the 50th goal of his short Celtic career at Tannadice on Saturday, clung to the old, familiar ways by remaining his side's best prospect of a goal.
A turn and shot brought out a good save from Rousset and broke the monotony of Celtic's disjointed game.
Salvatori, the other Hearts player without a permanent agreement with the club, had Gordon Marshall scrambling in vain at the other end.
The Italian's aim was only marginally misguided, but so were his intentions when he was cautioned for a foul on Stuart Gray, the defender used for the first time this season to compensate for the loss of injury-victim Tosh McKinlay.
Both teams struggled to provide anything resembling a cup tie until the last five minutes of the first half.
Salvatori first of all lobbed a pass over the Celtic defence but Robertson's volley was saved by Marshall.
Rousset then partially saved an Andreas Thom effort before being obliged to thwart Di Canio and Jorge Cadete as both players made separate attempts to score from ricochets.
Grant, enlivened by the rising temperature of the game, was booked for a foul on Colin Cameron and Thorn marked his short stay in Scotland with a booking for a foul on Di Canio as the game again degenerated in the second half.
Celtic rarely played as a unit and only Van Hooijdonk carried any notable threat in front of goal. Another of his long-range efforts required Rousset to make a one-handed save but few shared the Dutchman's sense of adventure.
It was misadventure which reduced Hearts to ten men after 61 minutes when Salvatori became the fifth Tynecastle player to be sent off in four days.
- · Manager’s comments Post-Match
After the game, Burns apologised to the Celtic support for the greed of his players. The manager said they had betrayed their following.
"Players would do well to remember there are a lot of Celtic fans who are unemployed but pay good money to watch the team play," he said.
"Some of them even went into debt so that they could buy shares in this club. Those supporters can rest assured that I will be sorting this matter out as quickly as possible."
Burns was unable to determine the extent to which the row over bonus payments had affected his team at Tynecastle.
The manager was certain, however, that the players' performance had been a poor one.
"We had enough of the ball to win a dozen games but took none of our chances to score," he said.
"Hearts battled well. The night is theirs.
"The supporters will look at the outcome and see that the players' actions beforehand had their effect."