I had booked my flights and hotels for Saturday for the Hearts game. I thought it was a cert for a 3pm kick off on Sat 06 Dec. After all the rangers were away and we have a big Europa League game at home to Roma on Thursday. How wrong I was Sky Sports decided they wanted it moved and moved it was.
I lost the money on my flights but thankfully my regular hotel cancelled the room with no charge. As the rain poured down on match day I was back in the winter sunshine of Spain and joined the members of Paddy’s Point CSC for the game.
There was so much going on around the game. Wilfried Nancy was taking charge of Celtic for the first time, Martin O’Neill was back in semi-retirement working as a pundit and filling the diary for sold out shows.
The Celtic Collective Protest took place and the Green Brigade who are serving a ban from Celtic games home and away had their annual match day foodbank collection.
Wilfried decided to rip up Martin O’Neill’s script which had steadied the Celtic ship since Brendan Rodgers left the building. He introduced a back 3 of Tierney, Scales and Trusty and brought back Tounekti and Nygren to the starting 11.
A late Kieran Tierney goal was not enough to salvage a point for Celtic and the new manager’s start did not go to plan. Wilfried has been ridiculed for the use of a tactics board which I must admit I thought were for dressing rooms and tactical sessions after training and I was a little surprised to see him showing Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney it during the game. Lets hope he has the last laugh on those so quick to judge and mock.
The game reminded me of life under Brendan Rodgers near the end of his time, plenty of possession but no end product and I know I sound like a broken record but that goes back to failure to invest in a quality striker with further investment needed in the first team in a number of positions.
Before kick-off Celtic fans unveiled numerous banners against the current board and then it was time to back the team after Wilfried Nancy was announced and came out of the tunnel to applause from the Celtic fans including the fans packed into Paddy’s Point.
Celtic had chances but failed to take them in the first half and paid the price with sloppy defending to allow Hearts to score just before half time. It was the Edinburgh’s side first chance and they took it. Boos could be heard ringing around the stadium as the teams went up the tunnel. Celtic were the better team in the first half but had nothing to show for it.
What ever was said at half time in the dressing room had no effect on the performance. In fact Celtic looked well out of sorts and Hearts capitalised on it and scored with their third chance of the game. Which came from a corner from their second chance when Kasper pulled off a good save from Shankland.
Celtic had a great chance with 5 minutes to go but the Hearts keeper made a save to deny Engels an equaliser. Hatate then smashed the ball off the bar.
The reaction from the Celtic fans gathered in the bar after the game, was mixed some were angry while others had a more level view.
On Thursday we are back on the road to Celtic Park and we go again against Roma who may be the best team we will face in the Europa League this season. Lets hope Wilfried can get his message through to the Celtic players from now till Thursday because the message seemed to be lost in translation on Sunday.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast
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