Hibs 1-2 Celtic

Celtic stretched their lead at the top of the SPL table to a massive fifteen points with an a fine victory at Easter Road. On a ground where both Hearts and Rangers have been comprehensively beaten, Celtic shown great character to recover from a miserable start and claim the victory. Despite the terrible winter conditions that threatened the tie, the match got under way in front of a decent crowd and a remarkable turn-out from Celtic fans ensuring a roaring atmosphere.

Celtic began the match playing an unorthodox formation of 4-4-1-1 due to the absence of talismanic striker John Hartson due to a hamstring injury and Hibs took full advantage of this tactical change by playing five in midfield and hence dominating proceedings early on. Celtic's only effort in the early stages was when Shunsuke Nakamura curled a free-kick narrowly wide.

Ivan Sproule, in particular was giving Celtic problems due to his blistering pace but it was Chris Killen who appeared to have given Hibs the lead until the intervention of the linesman's flag on seven minutes. Derek Riordan had flicked the ball on and Killen who calmly lifted the ball home from 12 yards, only for the officials to rule him offside in what was a tight decision.

Hibs deservedly took the lead after 24 minutes when another weaving run from Sproule was brought to an end by Mark Wilson on the edge of the box. Derek Riordan stepped up to curl a beautiful shot over the wall into the top right-hand corner of the net. Boruc will be unhappy with his positioning as he left too big a gap to his right hand side and Riordan made him pay despite the Pole getting a hand to the ball.

It was no more than Hibernian deserved at this stage and Strachan finally shuffled the pack 10 minutes later by dropping Stilian Petrov into a more orthodox midfield role to combat the hosts' 4-5-1 formation. This was a pivotal moment in the match and a great change in strategy. The change paid immediate dividends when after Steven Whittaker lost the ball in midfield to Roy Keane, the ball fell to Maloney, whose fine run clear was only stopped by Whittaker's scything tackle from behind. The full-back somehow escaped with a yellow card despite clearly denying a goalscoring opportunity to once again bring into question the consistency of refereeing. Maloney picked himself up to superbly fire home from the spot for an equaliser in the 36th minute.


Hibs were struggling to cope with Strachan's tactical change and Keane almost put Celtic ahead before half-time. However Simon Brown saved his well-hit drive from 12 yards to keep the scores level before half-time.

The second half kicked off with a completely different feel to it and all of Hibernian's hard work was undone on the hour mark. With Celtic growing in confidence, Nakamura's mis-hit corner found Zurawski, and the Pole flicked on to McManus, who celebrated signing a new deal with the Bhoys with a neat finish for his seventh goal of the season. This is a great goalscoing tally for a centre-half and on this occasion his strike proved to be the winner.

Hibs were clearly rattled and a minute later they were reduced to 10 men when home keeper Brown handled outside of the box to prevent a goalscoring opportunity with Zurawski racing clear, leaving referee Alan Freeland no choice but to give him a red card.

With the Bhoys looking to make their extra man count, Freeland handed them the golden opportunity to wrap up the victory minutes later when he gave Celtic another penalty after Maloney was again felled by Whittaker. Quite amazingly Whittaker's tackle went unpunished with the defender already on a yellow card following his dangerous tackle for the first penalty. Maloney was denied a second when substitute keeper Zbigniew Malkowski flung himself to his left to palm away the winger's effort. It was Maloney's first miss of the season from the spot and gave Hibs a lifeline.

The Polish keeper also made fine saves from Petrov and then Zurawski in the closing stages to keep the hosts in it. But, other than Steven Fletcher's failed attempt to prod in at the far post from Michael Stewart's cross-shot, Hibernian failed to trouble Celtic as the league leaders comfortably held on to stretch the lead at the top of the table and take a big step towards winning the title before the split.


Hibs: Simon Brown, Whittaker, Caldwell, Smith, Murphy, Stewart, Thomson, Glass (Fletcher 69), Sproule, Killen (Dalglish 74), Riordan (Malkowski 62)

Subs Not Used: Hogg, Konde, McCluskey, Shields.


Celtic (4-4-1-1):

Boruc

Telfer Balde McManus Wilson

Nakamura(Pearson 80) Lennon, Keane, Maloney

Petrov

Zurawski

Subs Not Used: Marshall, Dublin, Thompson, Varga, Lawson, Wallace.


Att:16,985

Ref: A Freeland