John Kennedy was about to take the last throw of the dice when a glorious strike from Bahrudin Atajic fired Celtic level against Hearts last night at Tynecastle.
With the home-side 1-0 up there was just 14 minutes left to play when Jamie Lindsay sent in a deep cross from the right flank.
Young Paul McMullen was stripped and ready to come on but with one glorious scissor kick Atajic turned the tie around and returned the compliment three minutes later to set up Lindsay for the winner.
“Paul was probably 20 seconds away from going on,” Kennedy smiled. “It doesn’t matter who was coming off! That’s football.
“If we hadn’t scored Paul was going on, if Bahrudin had put that over the bar young Paul would have been on. That’s the way it goes, Paul was probably a wee bit disappointed not to get on but he was happy enough to be involved in the squad. Football is all about these fine lines.
“We had a training session about six weeks ago, just small sided and he did the exact same thing. That’s Bahrudin, technically he’s first class you can’t question him.
“Sometimes we get on to him about working for the team but he showed in the second half the way that he pressed and got himself into tackles which isn’t his natural game.
“When he does that combining with his technical ability he looks a top player.”
After a listlress first half Celtic found themselves a goal down at the break through a Dale Carrick header in the 44th minute.
Two tactical changes saw Marcus Fraser and Darnell Fisher return to defence with Lindsay brought on to open up the Hearts defence as Denny Johnstone provided more of a physical presence in attack.
Kennedy added: “We knew how tough the game would be but in the first half we were off the pace. We made a couple of changes at half time and it worked well but the attitude of the players in the second half was much better.
“We pressed, were aggressive, won our tackles and were positive on the ball, that was the difference not so much the personel changes.
“At half time we emphasised to them what it means to wear a Celtic jersey- the first half wasn’t acceptable. We let the players know that. We know how good they are and they have the right character, that’s why they are at this club and they showed that in abundance in the second half.
“Their heads could have gone down, it’s game over, but they showed the desire and hunger to win the game and that was most pleasing to see.
“We showed a lot of belief in the second half, we wanted to win the match and probably deserved it in the end.”
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