Hearts 0 Celtic 4

From ROBERT GRIEVE at Tynecastle

FOR Neil Lennon it’s 100, not out.

Just four days after threatening to quit as Celtic boss he notched his century of wins in charge.

Hearts were tortured at Tynecastle, with Lennon’s men staying top of the SPL in some style.

This was a pulsating clash which the home side put plenty into. But the end result was never in doubt.

Lassad, Mikael Lustig and Gary Hooper all hit the net, with Ryan Stevenson scoring a luckless own goal.

On a night when nothing went right for Hearts, they missed a late penalty with

the outstanding Fraser Forster pulling off a save from Marius Zaliukas. You could almost sense this kind of performance was coming from Celtic.

They had questions asked of them after the weekend defeat to Inverness Caley Thistle.

Stats were thrown at them like confetti at a wedding.

One win from their last five, seven from 14 since the season kicked off.

Had they lost last night it would have been three defeats on the bounce for the first time since 1994.

It didn’t matter to some that this side are on the verge of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League. That they had beaten Barcelona.

The fact punters were giving it tight to Lennon as he stood in the dugout at Parkhead on Saturday meant the pressure was on. But what a way to respond.

Tynecastle was buzzing before kick-off, like it always is for this fixture.

Surprisingly, disappointingly, there were a large number of empty seats in the home end.

But you wouldn’t have known it from start to finish with the place jumping.

Celtic Park may be one of the best stadiums in the whole of the UK. But it doesn’t get atmospheres like this when it comes to domestic league games. Not any more.

That’s one of the main reasons Celtic’s players have struggled in their own backyard this season.

Here it was demanded of them that they were at it.

Hearts tried to give as good as they got, but the fact is they didn’t stand a chance. The club’s diehards will argue they should have been awarded a penalty at 0-0 and they’d have a case. Lassad appeared to handle the ball inside his own box at a Hearts corner.

But it’s hard to imagine the home side getting anything out of this game even if they had taken the lead.

Celtic missed a great chance inside the first three minutes, Kris Commons firing straight at keeper Jamie MacDonald after a cut-back from Hooper.

But it never looked like it was going to be a missed opportunity Celts were going to regret.

Once they got their noses in front there was no stopping them. Try as Hearts might.

Put it this way, they were three up by half-time with a stream of home fans heading for the exits long before the players reached the dressing room. Not that you could blame them. Celts’ first came in nine minutes, with Lassad volleying Commons’ cross in at the near post.

The home side had a great chance to level in 15 minutes when Stevenson picked out Callum Paterson with an inch-perfect free-kick.

But despite being in acres of space the stand-in striker failed to make contact with the ball.

Hearts had another penalty shout after 33 minutes, but ref Willie Collum was right to rule that Kelvin Wilson won the ball from Paterson with a good challenge.

At the other end Charlie Mulgrew fired a right-footed shot over the bar when he’d have probably scored had it been on his lethal left.

But goal No2 wasn’t long in coming. Lustig combined with Lassad to work the ball into the box in 22 minutes, with Zaliukas only able to partially clear his cross.

The ball bounced back to Lustig, who scored with a shot MacDonald got a hand to but couldn’t stop.

It was cruel on the Jambos but devastating front play from Celts once again.

It wasn’t all about Lennon’s attackers though.

Forster pulled off a superb double save to keep out a Stevenson free-kick and then a Zaliukas header from point-blank range. How he got to it, only he knows.

Then, on the half-hour mark, Celtic broke upfield to net their third.

This time it went down as an OG, with Stevenson turning a Mulgrew cutback into his own net.

At 3-0 down with an hour still to play there was a real danger the result could get embarrassing. But Hearts didn’t stop fighting as they tried to turn it around.

Kid Jamie Walker was lively and cost Efe Ambrose a booking in 33 minutes.

Four minutes into the second half Kevin McHattie forced another top-class save from Forster with a drilled free-kick from 25 yards.

The game threatened to get out of hand on the hour mark at a dropped ball.

Commons was meant to give possession back to MacDonald, but he incensed the Jambos players by doing some cheeky keepy-uppies first.

In 72 minutes, McGlynn’s men had another shout for a penalty when Ambrose handled after miscontrolling in the Celts box. Sub Mehdi Taouil then forced another good save from Forster with a blasted shot.

Hooper missed an open goal in 77 minutes — but his blushes were spared by a raised flag for offside.

With seven minutes left though, the striker did add his name to the scoresheet.

Mulgrew crossed from the left, with Hooper volleying in his 12th goal of the season from inside the six-yard box.

Hearts were finally awarded a penalty in the dying seconds when Wilson brought down Stevenson.

But their misery continued as Zaliukas’ spot-kick was saved by the immense Forster.

HEARTS: MacDonald 6, R. McGowan 7, Webster 6, Zaliukas 6, McHattie 6, Stevenson 7, Barr 6, D. McGowan 6, Walker 6 (Driver 3), Holt 6 (Taouil), Paterson 6. Booked: Paterson.

CELTIC: Forster 9, Lustig 8 (Matthews 3), Ambrose 8, Wilson 9, Mulgrew 8, Commons 8, Kayal 8, Wanyama 9, Ledley 8 (Brown 3), Lassad 8 (Samaras 2), Hooper 8. Booked: Ambrose, Wanyama.

REFEREE: Willie Collum - 6.