Celtic show heart in spades

IT MAY not be the sign of a great team but it is an indication of a successful one. Even their own manager had given up on them by the time Celtic scored their winner. What he hadn't factored in, however, was a moment so out of character for Craig Gordon that it had to be seen to be believed and the granite character of his own team.

"It will probably be another ten years before he does anything like that again," said Gordon Strachan of the Scotland goalkeeper's own goal in the final moments of the match. "I think him and Hartley, Pressley and Neilson have all been fantastic since I've come back [to Scotland] and that's probably why Scotland are doing so well. They have shown great mental strength to keep battling away when it's not been easy for them so to beat a group like that is not bad."

The result may be classed as not bad but he accepted that the play would probably fall into the category of not that good. Not that he cared by the time the whistle heralded the end of the match and, in all honesty, the end of the league challenge. Thirteen points ahead after just 13 games and although defender Stephen McManus is cautious, few will honestly believe the defending champions will fail to retain the title.

"It's nice [to have such a comfortable lead] but there's going to be a time when we hit a dip in form and don't pick up as many points as we would like so we have got to keep being professional and see what happens at the end of the season."

It is that attitude which impressed Strachan and saw him rail against suggestions that, while it had been a rewarding result, the performance had been unimpressive. "The performance was magnificent from the point of heart and determination. I accept that technically one or two could have played better. We have three different units and one of them fell below expectations and that gave us a problem but we made that better with some changes.

"We weren't as sharp as we would like to be but the players did something about it. I thought Gary Caldwell decided he'd had enough and broke forward into midfield and changed the game and that takes a lot of guts. But we have never claimed to be a good or a great side. Hearts were excellent but we're still 13 points ahead of them and that shows that sometimes technical ability isn't everything. But maybe this shows we only need 20 minutes of half-decent technical ability."

Such a comment will fall into the hands of Hearts majority shareholder who has claimed that the football played by the Old Firm is crude and unsophisticated but Celtic will shoulder such criticism quite happily if it sees them lift the Bank of Scotland Premierleague trophy. The Celtic boss also served a reminder than his squad were also maintain the fight on several frontiers that Hearts themselves failed to contend with.

"You have got to give the team we were playing against a lot of credit," conceded the manager of the year, "but they have had all week to work on things and put their plan together, we've had 24 hours preparation to see who is fit, not fit and then get ourselves out there. To do that and win a big game is first class."

It was a victory he hadn't envisaged as time ebbed away. Hearts had taken the lead through Andrius Velicka in the 73rd minute, before Jiri Jarosik equalised with four minutes of normal time left. But it was the winner four minutes into stoppage time which took him by surprise. "I just saw Mick [Stephen McManus] have a big swipe at it and I thought, 'well we can't complain' and maybe a draw was going to be a decent result for us. Hearts had done well, were full of energy and full of life, 'so, there you go, that's life' and then suddenly the ball was in the back of the net."

"It was one of those things," explained the Celtic defender, who was initially credited with the goal. "Sometimes you can smack a 20-yarder and Craig will pull off a world beater of a save, other times you sclaff it and it goes in."

But he insisted the players had been more dogged in their belief that something could be salvaged than their manager. "There's a good feeling in the dressing room. The lads have just been saying that, when we go behind, we are always confident we can get another goal, whether it's an equaliser or a winner.

"I think you need that character. You're not going to play every single league game and win it comfortably. There's going to be games when you start a wee bit slow and the opposition comes at you and times when you dominate the full 90 minutes. When you are looking up at the clock and its into the 80th minute or whatever, then you definitely would settle for a point but you still need the self-belief that you can maybe get something more and this time we got something!"

They got it but they got it gift-wrapped. The victory, the three points, and, surely, the title.

Taken from the Scotsman