| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- Celtic put a price tag of £500,000 on Malky MacKay. This curtailed the involvement of teams looking to sign the centre half who appeared to be peripheral to Jansen’s plans.
- Paul Lambert won the Bells Player of the Month Award for January.
- The Argintine players brought over by Eric Black were released without any one of them being taken on.
- Andy Ritchie took over the role of first team Chief Scout which had been vacant since Davie Hay was fired.
Review
A last gasp equaliser denied the Bhoys all the points after Jackie McNamara had put them ahead.
Teams
Hearts:
McKenzie, Locke, Naysmith, D Weir, McPherson, Ritchie, McCann, Fulton, Adam (Hamilton ,80 ), Cameron (Flogel ,80 ), Salvatori (Quitongo ,64)
Scorer: Quitongo (89)
Bookings: Ritchie (Hearts)
Celtic:
Gould ; Annoni, Mahe, McNamara , Rieper , Stubbs , Larsson , Burley , Brattbakk (Jackson ,85 ), Lambert, Wieghorst
Subs not used: Donnelly, Hannah
Scorer: McNamara (40)
Bookings: Annoni ,Burley ,Lambert (Celtic)
Referee: B Tait (East Kilbride)
Attendance: 17,657
Articles
- Match Report(see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Hearts | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 1 | 3 |
| Fouls | 9 | 12 |
| Shots on Target | 7 | 11 |
| Corners | 5 | 11 |
| Offside | 0 | 1 |
Hearts keep title hopes alive with late strike
The Scotsman 09/02/1998
Hearts 1 Quitongo (93)
Celtic 1 McNamara (40)
CELTIC and their supporters must have left Edinburgh yesterday feeling as though they had just been the victims of footpads. Jose Quitongo, the diminutive Angolan forward, is an unlikely hold-up man, but he robbed the Parkhead side of a victory they appeared to have earned several times over.
Having replaced Stefano Salvatori in the 64th minute, Quitongo had been kept quiet by Stephane Mahe for the next 29 minutes. It was not only the crowd who were astonished when the little man arrived in the final seconds of the game to produce an equaliser that secured an unlikely draw for the home side after Jackie Mcnamara had opened the scoring five minutes from the interval.
Rangers were the main beneficiaries of the result, remaining at the top of the Premier Division on goal difference. The champions will be feeling as fortunate as Hearts on a day when Celtic seemed to be the victims of a malevolent providence.
Some matches, by their very significance, cannot be over-hyped and this was a thrilling example of the genre. Lifted by the almost tangible, collective desire of a capacity crowd, the players of both sides found it difficult not to respond.
The result was a relentless, occasionally breathtaking contest that must surely have been more stimulating to the audience inside Tynecastle than to the one gathered around TVs throughout the country.
But not even the long series of energetic attacks and – especially from Celtic – near things around goal could have prepared the crowd for the ending provided by Quitongo. The match, quite simply had seemed beyond the Tynecastle side long before that impossibly late intervention.
Jim Jefferies, the Hearts manager, had predicted a different style for his own side, with more emphasis on closing up a midfield that had, in the past been opened up to the deadly thrust of Celtic's formidable four in that area.
In the event, the home side began the match as if the word defence had been erased from their lexicon. This pulsating aggressiveness did not last long, however, as Celtic showed themselves to be utterly competent in judging pace.
Still, those early flurries from Hearts were probably what gave birth to the match's dramas and excitements, as it established from the outset that there would be no time for any player on the field to have it "easy" at any time.
Jefferies' plan to close down the Parkhead midfield unfolded when David Weir, an international central defender who had had surgery on a bone condition just ten days earlier, was deployed into the department, along with Steve Fulton, Stefano Salvatori and Neil McCann.
Colin Cameron, who usually rides shotgun for Fulton, was pushed forward to skirmish alongside Stephane Adam and it was difficult to resist the thought that perhaps the tampering had been overdone. With Salvatori and Weir emphatically defensive players and Neil McCann most effective on the wing, there was, for lengthy periods of the game, a notable lack of creativity in that crucial area.
Celtic were contrastingly clever and quick in their surges towards Roddy McKenzie and should have been ahead long before McNamara claimed the opener five minutes from the interval.
Hearts' most menacing threat during that first half came very early, with Cameron's chip from Fulton's perceptive pass into the Celtic area forcing Jonathan Gould into a full-stretch save.
Unlike the opportunities that would arise at the other end, that attempt from Cameron always seemed likely to be covered by the goalkeeper. Hearts prevented Celtic from scoring before McNamara's strike with a combination of good luck and a refereeing decision which was at least worthy of discussion.
Wieghorst was at the centre of the controversy, taking possession after a corner kick from McNamara on the right and driving the ball low with his left foot past McKenzie from 12 yards. Referee Tait indicated that he had controlled the ball with his hand, but, to the naked eye and, relying on Wieghorst's vehement protest as a guide, it seemed a pretty severe judgement.
It was only luck that kept Alan Stubbs from establishing Celtic's advantage a little later, the curling, right-foot shot from the big defender evading the defending Adam and thudding back off McKenzie's left-hand post.
The young goalkeeper, who had been an unnerving stand-in for the injured Gilles Rousset eight days earlier, once again had feelings of dread rippling through the home support when he missed high crosses on two occasions. From the first, a corner kick, the ball came off Paul Ritchie and would have been an own goal but for being blocked on the line.
There was no spectral presence to halt McNamara, however, when he was given his opportunity. Harald Brattbakk began the move with a run inside from the left before supplying Larsson. The Swede claimed a penalty as he was challenged by Ritchie, but the ball ran straight to McNamara on the right and his low shot from six yards slithered past McKenzie.
Celtic had, by then, put a clamp on the home side and were fully entitled to a lead. And there was still time before the break to squander a golden opportunity from which to double it.
Lambert supplied Brattbakk with a wonderfully-controlled ball into the inside-left channel and the Norwegian played it into the path of the free-running Larsson. With only McKenzie to beat, the normally reliable forward wrapped his left foot round the ball and pulled it tamely wide of the goalkeeper's left-hand post.
The number of opportunities Celtic created and squandered during a second half of oppressive authority would fill a thick ledger. Brattbakk himself could have scored four and there were a succession of attempts from others that should have been made to count.
The visitors had taken virtually complete control of the midfield and simply picked Hearts off at will. What they missed was a genuine finisher. Perhaps it was their misfortune that the chances fell mainly to Brattbakk, rather than Larsson.
The Swede, in fact, set up the Norwegian with one of the chances he had to demonstrate his dilatoriness when in a good position. They were all similar: the striker sent clear on the left of the penalty area and delaying his shot long enough to be worried out of position by back-tracking defenders.
During that period of unremitting defending for the home team, Burley also hit the top of the crossbar with a dipping volley and Stephane Mahe had a powerful drive pushed up and against the bar by McKenzie.
The referee had examined his watch several times when Quitongo, who had replaced Salvatori, produced his equaliser after three minutes of stoppage time.
The little forward had a shot blocked before McCann tried and was again blocked. The ball came back to Quitongo, whose next attempt looked bound for the arms of Gould before it was deflected by Mahe away from the goalkeeper and over the line.
For Celtic, a cruel denial. For Hearts, the kind of result from an ordinary performance that contenders for a championship need.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen post match
“Our desire to in the game was much better, and we had many chances, but we didn’t do what we should have.
“The game lasts 90 minutes, or a little bit more, and you have to get the goals in that time to win the game.
“I am annoyed that we did not finish it off and the game went on a few seconds too long for my liking.
“If we’d scored a second goal the game would have been over. Now though the three teams are still at the top and the next few weeks are very important.
“We have to leave this match behind and look to the next few games and try to improve on that.
“We played well at Tynecastle but we really should have won the game.”