| Match Pictures | Matches: 1999 – 2000 | 1999-2000 Pictures |
Trivia
- The fall out continued over the revelation that MacDonald had employed a behavioural psychologist to examine the refereeing of the last Derby game of the previous season.
- The Celtic Supporters Association threw their weight behind a call by the Trust Initiative for an ordinary fan on the Board considering the large number of small shareholders at the club after Fergus McCann had sold his shares. Billy McNeill was also backing the Initiative.
- Josip Skoko, an Australian Croat and captain of Hajduk Split flew in for talks with Celtic over a possible move. Celtic wanted to see him play. His agent, mad Bernie Mandic who was also Viduka’s agent, didn’t want that to happen. Celtic must have been sick of the sight of Mandic. Skoko flew off for an assessment by Wolfsburg in Germany.
- Olivier Tebily, on international, duty with the Ivory Coast team at the African Nations Cup, was held hostage along with a number of Cote d’Ivoire players following their poor showing at the Cup. They were released after two days.
- Fernando de Ornelas who had been on trial at the club and played in the Friendly against Bayern Munich, was given a short term contrat to the end of the season.
Review
Booing at the end as the team left the park. Having gone 2 – 0 up the bhoys contrived to throw the game away
Teams
Celtic: Gould, Riseth, Stubbs, Boyd, Mahe (Blinker 74), Petrov, Healy, Mjallby (Johnson 62), Berkovic (Burchill 62), Viduka, Moravcik
Subs Not Used: Kerr, Petta.
Goals: Moravcik 18, Viduka 28.
Hearts: Niemi, Pressley, Murray, Petric, Naysmith, Flogel, Cameron, Simpson, Tomaschek, Jackson (Adam 85), Wales (Kirk 85).
Subs Not Used: Rousset, Makel, Severin.
Goals: Cameron 31, Naysmith 55, Cameron 83 pen.
Booked: Petrov (Celtic) Simpson, Petric (Hearts)
Referee: John Rowbotham (Scotland).
Attendance: 59,896
Articles
- Match Report
- Manager Interview
"We went ahead playing as a team but then started to perform as individuals. "My players began trying to be over elaborate. Assuming that Rangers win tomorrow, the championship now becomes more difficult by the day. If we continue to play like this, in fact, we'll be lucky to finish second."
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Hearts | |
| Bookings | 1 | 2 |
| Red Cards | 0 | 0 |
| Fouls | 7 | 14 |
| Shots on Target | 9 | 5 |
| Corners | 4 | 3 |
| Offside | 2 | 1 |
Roof caves in again
Sunday Herald 06/02/2000
By Ron McKay;at Celtic Park
CELTIC 2-3 Hearts
Jim JeffEries whispered a couple of weeks ago that if his side showed commitment and put a run together they could still clinch the third spot in the league. If this isn't a run it is at least a confident walk. His opposite number was forced to admit that on this performance Celtic will be lucky to come second. His expectations are too high.
Despite the home side's frailties, and they were abundant, you cannot come from two goals behind with less than half an hour gone and win at Celtic Park without a healthy dollop of effort and self-belief. And that Hearts had, where Celtic capitulated feebly after running the early part of the game. Their midfield ceased to function in the second half and the defensive shield collapsed, all three goals coming down the Celtic right flank where Vidar Riseth proved that providing cover and meaningful intervention are tasks too onerous and effortful.
To put this fine victory into context, it is more than four years since Hearts beat Celtic away, the first under Jefferies, and the last time they stepped on to the bus at Parkhead they were travelling on the end of a 5-1 tanking. Parkhead anoraks were trying to recall the last time Celtic conceded a two-goal lead at home, the best guesstimate being in 1988 against Dundee. The rest of the Celtic crowd simply booed the conundrum they had witnessed.
Save for a couple of forced errors at the back, every Hearts man played at the peak of his powers and endeavour, none more so than Colin Cameron, who personified perpetual motion, and Gary Naysmith who ran a rut along both flanks and who must pop up as an ogre in Riseth's nightmares. The Hearts manager said afterwards that his side's midweek performance had been unacceptable, that he left out "two or three players and I could have left out seven". His message before the game was that if you want to hold on to the jersey, show that you can play.
By contrast, John Barnes could offer no reason why his side caved in so abjectly. The best he could muster was that having gone two up, his players indulged in individuality and showboating, rather than collective endeavour, although it was less coherent than that, about on par with his team's performance.
Celtic were reduced to less than their first choice team through injury but, that said, Barnes was out-thought by Jefferies and his players out-fought by Hearts. The team had no core of strength and lacked legs and a midfield motivator. Lubo Moravcik did most of their running and fashioned their dangerously creative movements, when he should have sappers around him to level and defuse the terrain.
Hearts plan at the start was a cautious and sensible one, given the disparity in resources between the two sides, playing Grant Murray as a man marker on Moravcik. The problem was that Murray, in a similar role the week before, was taken apart by the 19-year-old Stenhousemuir striker Ross Hamilton and withdrawn at half-time. This gambit is difficult against a man who moves where the malevolence takes him.
The Celtic man fankled the lad a couple of times before he utterly corkscrewed him. Stilian Petrov chopped the ball across to Eyal Berkovic (his contribution to any game is questionable) who shunted it on, the little Slovak received it with his back to goal around 22 yards out, he feinted and turned inside and tucked the ball neatly inside the right-hand post with Antti Niemi, unsighted or utterly unbelieving, cemented to his spot. It was beautiful in its utterly deadly simplicity. But credit to the young Hearts marker, his head did not go down and he battled back to turn in a meaningful display. By the end he was showing a healthy swagger.
Celtic's second, on 28 minutes, was the result of a double blunder by the Hearts defence. This time Niemi did put his hands to a fierce drive by Moravcik, but succeeded only in spilling the ball. Steven Pressley, who might have deposited the ball in the Gallowgate, instead chopped it tamely, only to Viduka who slotted into the empty net.
Celtic then decided to relax and forget the basic rule that vulnerability is at the maximum after a goal has been gained.
Darren Jackson collected a pass under duress a dozen yards inside the Celtic half. He shielded the ball, noticed the surging run of Cameron through the centre-forward channel, adroitly played a pass into his path, the wee man ran on, out-stripping Stubbs and Mjallby before chipping past the arriving Jonathan Gould from just inside the box.
The goal and a marginal realignment of forces, transformed Hearts in the second half, abetted by Celtic descent from disorder to a rabble.
The equaliser was a gem, although it stemmed from an error by Stilian Petrov. The lad has had little but criticism heaped on him since he pulled on the shirt, but he was committed and showed no little skill until he sunk into the general morass. His mistake was to attempt a back-heel on the run which bounced off Cameron, setting his little legs birling. Naysmith, making a parallel charge along the touchline, took the final ball inside the box before slotting wide of the goalkeeper.
Hearts were now flooding the midfield, leaving the willing Gary Wales alone up front and they created chances and ravaged holes in the home defence. Celtic threw on their three substitutes in an endeavour to change the course of a game that was slipping away from them. Tommy Johnson, for some reason, decided to employ himself as an extra defender and bolster the ailing Stubbs and in doing so sold the game by indulging in some barging in the box, Jackson the willing victim. Cameron made no mistake with a side-footed penalty to Gould's left corner.
It was a measure of the visitors' commitment to inflicting further damage on their hosts that they threw on two fresh front men. Colin Healy, fitful throughout, then had a side-foot shot clatter off the post in the dying moments but, by then, it was clear that nothing would redeem Celtic.