Celtic 0 - 0 Hearts
Team Line-ups:
Celtic: Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, O’Dea; Nakamura, Hartley, Brown(Flood 82), McGeady; McDonald(Maloney 69), Samaras(Vennegoor 45). (Subs: M.Brown, Naylor, Conroy, Crosas)
Hearts: Kello; Neilson, Karipidis, Zaliukas (J.Stewart 80), Wallace; Mrowiec, Jonsson, Stewart, Templeton (Novikovas 53), Obua, Elliot (Nade 61)
Subs: Balogh, Tullberg, Thomson, Park
Celtic and Rangers entered today 2 points apart, with Rangers holding the advantage at the top after a slip up from Celtic last week against Hibernian. It was a nervy afternoon for both sets of supporters as they waited to see who would be crowned the SPL Champions. With both games kicking off simultaneously it was sure to be a heart wrenching end to a long, hard season.
Celtic needed Dundee Utd to take a point at least from Walter Smiths Rangers, while still needing to put the sword to the Hearts defence and goalkeeper. Gordon Strachan sent out his usual side with two exceptions, O'Dea came in for Lee Naylor at left back, and Paul Hartley remained in the side in place of the usual starter, Marc Crosas.
Hearts kicked off the game at Celtic Park and for much of the first 15 minutes looked the better team, as Celtic were looking like a team who couldn't handle the pressure placed on their shoulders. Shortly after 20 minutes though Celtic started to look more comfortable, outwith a few minor errors.
With news coming through that Rangers had scored through Kyle Lafferty within the first 10 minutes, the Celtic faithful feared the worst. Celtic struggled on though, and almost went one up on 26 minutes when McGeady unleashed a shot from the edge of the area which was saved by Kello, who managed to force it onto the post and out for a Celtic corner.
McGeady: Best chance of the game.
A few more chances would fall Celtic's way with no real end product. On the stroke of half time, more disappointing news came through as Rangers had made it 2-0 against Dundee Utd through Pedro Mendes, the dreams of Four in a row were quickly dying.
Shortly after half time, Celtic's dream was truely over when Kris Boyd fired Rangers into a 3-0 lead. A disappointing season for the Bhoys in which many Celtic fans will feel their team gifted their rivals an easy title.
After this news came through, Aiden McGeady fired an easy finish inches wide of the post, Darren O'Dea had laid it off for him and under minimal pressure he couldn't find the finish.
As the final whistle blew, the season was over and Rangers were crowned SPL champions for the first time since 2005 - when Scott McDonald gifted them the title on the last day. Many Celtic fans would argue that their team has gifted them yet another title on the last day. The game at Celtic Park looked like it could have been played for the entire summer and the scoreline would remain 0-0.
The Aftermath:
As anticipated, with the title leaving the Parkhead trophy room there have been fresh calls for the manager and the board to accept full responsability for their teams misfortune. Twice throughout the year have Celtic thrown away a golden opportunity to keep a healthy
7 point advantage over the newly crowned champions. Gordon Strachans tactics during key games have often been called into question. Most recently the Old Firm game when Strachan decided to drop Aiden McGeady to play Shaun Maloney, who had only recently recovered from a long injury lay off, Celtic lost the game 1-0 and that was the beginning of the end for their title hopes.
Fresh calls for the managers head.
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