Celtic's second-half collapse allows Hearts to salvage point

JIM REYNOLDS

11 Apr 1994

AS a youngster, Stephen Frail dreamed of scoring goals for Celtic at Parkhead.

In reality, he scores goals at Parkhead -- but against the team he supported as a lad, and his strike two minutes from the end on Saturday earned Hearts a 2-2 draw and a vital point in the battle to avoid relegation.

Frail, signed recently from Dundee, admitted afterwards: "I was brought up in Maryhill and used to stand on the terracing at Parkhead to watch Celtic, but now I'm a Hearts man through and through.

That was only my second goal in more than five years -- and the last one was against Celtic at Parkhead when Dundee beat them 3-2.

"When I heard that Sandy Clark wanted to sign me for Hearts, I jumped at the chance to go to Tynecastle.

They are a big club and I never thought they would be relegated.

That hasn't changed."

Certainly Clark's side are showing a tremendous fighting spirit these days and it was their resilience, plus a remarkable second-half collapse by Celtic, which pulled them through on Saturday when they looked down and out.

Celtic, with John Collins in superb form, were totally in control in the first half and it was Collins who grabbed the opening goal after 24 minutes when he swept the ball in at the far post after a slick move involving young Simon Donnelly, Charlie Nicholas, and Rudi Vata.

The Albanian then gave Celtic what looked like a winning margin just before half-time.

A Tommy Boyd cross was knocked straight to Vata just inside the box and he took aim before shooting past Henry Smith.

Celtic, however, took on an unbalanced look when Nicholas had to be taken off injured and replaced by Mike Galloway.

The big fellow played up front alongside Donnelly, but the partnership just did not work, and when Celtic began to put themselves under pressure with careless passing, Hearts sensed they could salvage something.

When the home defence failed to clear a corner in 57 minutes, John Colquhoun rifled a low drive through a ruck of players and behind Carl Muggleton, and from then on one had the feeling that they would add to that score.

They did with two minutes left.

Frail was told to push forward, and when the Celtic defence again flopped trying to clear a Tosh McKinlay cross he scored the equaliser.

Sandy Clark said: "That's three matches Stephen has played since he joined us and I reckon he has already paid off most of the transfer fee.

I was disappointed with our first-half performance.

The lads looked tired after recent hard matches, but they made a magnificcent comeback and all credit to them."

Once again Celtic disappointed at home and their bid for a place in Europe next season is being made more and more difficult.

When things start going wrong you can almost see the confidence drain from them.

Said John Collins, who was the most accomplished player on the field: "We just didn't get going in the second half.

In the first half we were so comfortable and should have been further ahead -- I certainly should have done better than score just one.

But Hearts are due credit for the way they fought back."

Taken from the Herald