Source: FOOTYMAD
Celtic Did What Needed To Be Done
The whippersnappers from Gorgie were not allowed to build on their challenge for the top spot. Neil Lennon was full of praise for his captain Scott Brown after Celtic's 4-0 demolition of Hearts in midweek. The home side put kept third-placed Jambos in their place with a performance which included an Anthony Stokes double in between the first goal from James Forrest and a late strike from Paddy McCourt, who had come on as a substitute for the opening scorer. Celtic are still five points clear of Rangers at the top of the table, albeit having played two games more than the Ibrox men, and 10 points ahead of the Gorgie club. Amide the general good feeling about the result and performance Lennon singled out Brown for praise. He said: "I thought Scott Brown was awesome. Certain journalists seem to have it in for him but he was fantastic from start to finish. He started the game brilliantly for us, got us playing, got us going and you could see everything that was good about his game. I thought he was a real leader and that's why he is captain. I thought his booking was a joke but I'm not going to comment on referees." The media helped the Celtic squad focus on what they needed to do with pre-game hype about Hearts challenging the Old Firm. Jim Jefferies' side, who beat the Hoops 2-0 at Tynecastle in November, had travelled to Glasgow unbeaten in 11 league games and in buoyant mood. However, their mood was more sombre on the way home along the M8. Lennon said: "I thought a lot of the talk going in to the game was about Hearts. There has been a lot of negativity about our team this season. Even after we won 1-0 at the weekend (against Aberdeen) nobody spoke about the goal, they just talked about the negativity, about losing Daniel Majstorovic to injury and the last 15 minutes being frantic. All the talk was about Hearts so we used that as a motivation as well." After describing his side's performance in the latter stages of the game as a "shambles", Hearts manager Jefferies will look for his side to show what they are made of in the coming weeks. He said: "We tried to play offside but we weren't doing it very well. We got away with it a couple of times but you could have got a double decker bus between the two centre-halves for their third goal. It was most unlike us if you look at our goals-against record in the last 10 or 12 games. But we are just going to forget about it because the players don't deserve to be criticised too heavily. It's one game that didn't work out for us and it will be about how we bounce back. We never said we would be champions but we are going to try and have a good season now." Editor Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba net)Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba net)This is Scottish-Fitba.Net
