Hearts crashed to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Celtic tonight in an extremely bad tempered match at Tynecastle.

A Kris Commons goal and a Gary Hooper double sealed a win for the away side, while both teams finished a man down, David Obua seeing red in the first half and Commons getting his marching orders late in the second.

With third place in the league already sewn up, Jim Jefferies saw fit to make four changes to the side that was defeated at Ibrox last Saturday. Marian Kello returned in goals in the place of Jamie MacDonald, captain Marius Zaliukas joined Ismael Bouzid in the centre of defence which meant Adrian Mrowiec and Ruben Palazuelos missed out, while Stephen Elliott was reinstated in favour of David Templeton.

The away team were first to hit a shot goalwards, when on ten minutes Commons burst through the centre of the park and struck the ball from 20 yards, though his shot flew high and wide of Kello's right hand post.

A minute later Celtic got the breakthrough after a slack Zaliukas touch allowed Commons to gain possession, he squared the ball across to Hooper in the box, who calmly slotted it under the advancing Kello.

The Slovakian international had to be on hand again on the 25th minute, this time pushing a Commons shot from 18 yards onto the post. Commons got another bite of the cherry when the rebound found its way back to him, but his effort narrowly zipped past the opposite goalpost.

With thirty minutes gone referee Craig Thomson, under the advice of his linesman, saw fit to show a straight red card to Obua.

And with that red card, an already on-edge atmosphere inside the stadium turned hostile, as a succession of free kicks and lectures were dished out to both sets of players.

Hearts started the second half in a positive fashion with Rudi Skacel driving a 25 yard free kick hard and low but ultimately into the arms of Celtic 'keeper Forster.

Unfortunately for the Gorgie men the second goal of the match came only seconds later, and it went to the away side. Sung-Yeung danced his way into the Hearts box before playing a neat pass inside to Hooper, and the England U21 player made it a double for him and his team.

On the hour mark Celtic had another chance to put the game firmly beyond Hearts. A well worked short free kick from Charlie Mulgrew found the feet of Commons in the box, his effort was brilliantly blocked by Kello before being hacked away and out of danger.

With little under a quarter of an hour to go Celtic hit the final nail in the Hearts coffin when the impressive Commons twisted and turned his way through the home penalty area before slotting into Kello's right hand corner. As the adopted Scot went to celebrate with the away fans, he received a second booking and was sent off from the field of play.

Though Hearts continued to battle and attempted to break down a robust Celtic defence, they could find no passage through, as the final home game of the season ended in a disappointing 3-0 defeat.

Hearts can now begin to prepare for next season, and life in the Europa League.

Hearts: Kello; Jonsson, Bouzid, Zaliukas, C.Thomson; Obua, Black, McGowan, Skacel (Glen, 76); Stevenson (Barr, 76), Elliott (Driver, 63). Subs not used: MacDonald, Robinson, Stewart, Mrowiec.

Celtic: Forster, Izaguirre (Maloney, 76), Majstorovic, Brown, Samaras (Murphy, 84), Wilson (Du-Ri, 83), Commons, Sung-Yueng, Mulgrew, Loovens, Hooper. Subs not used: Zaluska, Rogne, Forrest, Stokes.

Referee: Craig Thomson

Top man: Marian Kello

Hearts World