Celtic’s u-19 squad slumped to their first domestic defeat of the season when they lost 2-1 to Hearts at Barrowfield.
Two goals in the last ten minutes gave the visitors full points to cancel out Celtic’s 2-0 victory at the Hearts Academy in September.
The win puts Hearts ten points clear of Celtic having played three more matches. With just 22 games in the campaign it looks like being a tight race with the Edinburgh side having eight games left to play.
While both Hearts goals were preventable, particularly the second, the manner in which referee William Wilson allowed the Edinburgh side to play was a major factor in the result.
A constant routine of body checking, follow-through’s and more obvious foul play knocked Celtic out of their rhythm with Wilson unable or unwilling to punish the visitors.
Paul George came in for the worst of the treatment with the Celtic goalscorer clearly identified as the main threat to the visitors.
Just before half-time Wilson belatedly blew for a free-kick on Callum McGregor and after booking the Hearts number four was advised to book their number 10 for an off the ball kick at George that required the Celtic midfielder to leave the field for treatment.
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Three minutes into the second half George extracted some revenge when he steered a low right foot shot into the net at the end of a typical solo run.
Robbie Thomson came to Celtic’s rescue in the 65th minute with a great one-on-one block after Mikey Miller and Filip Twardzik were caught in possession at the back.
Hearts were pushing strongly for an equaliser but the verbal abuse aimed at Paul George by Hearts coach Darren Murray after he was hacked to the deck has no place in football at any level.
Nine minutes from the end Hearts equalised with a low drive from their number eight after a good move with the winner in the 86th minute coming after Thomson failed to collect from an inswinging free kick allowing the Hearts player to head into the unguarded net.
In the final minute of injury time a free kick from Twardzik was blocked by the Hearts keeper but George was unable to net the rebound..
CELTIC: Thomson; Miller, Fraser, F Twardzik, Chalmers; Herron (Watt 86), Kidd ( P Twardzik 81), Fisher, McGregor, George; Bogle
BOTH PICTURES provided by Big Lens
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Somehow the tactics of the scum from edinburgh doesn’t surprise me any.
The reaction of the hearts coach is something that is bred into scumbags like those from tyncastle. Of course there was no protection! Why would they change now?
They never protect the big team, and they send the same message to the kids.