Ronny Deila was pleased that Celtic kept their cool throughout a fiesty Scottish Cup tie with Hearts.
A career threatening lunge by Morgaro Gomis on Scott Brown resulted in an early red card for the Hearts skipper but Celtic refused to get drawn into the physical battle favoured by the home side and ran out comfortable 4-0 winners.
Referee Willie Collum gave a series of baffling decisions, mainly against any challenge from Scott Brown, with a ‘goal’ from Kris Commons disallowed late in the second half for no apparent reason.
Despite those circumstances Celtic used their extra man to full advantage with the Championship leaders played off the park by the hoops pace and possession play.
“When you go one man up it’s easier, of course, but also it’s hard to break down (the opposition),” Deila explained. “We had a good game today, good discipline in the team. We were very good to win the ball back when we lost it, we kept them under pressure and in the end we score four goals and win comfortably.
“We practise a lot on the attacking play. We need more penetrating runs to open up more space for each other. In the end it’s about winning and of course I am happy we had a good game.”
At the final whistle the Celtic players acknowledged the backing they’d received by the travelling support with Deila delighted by the encouragement that his players received.
He added: “It’s important we do that and show appreciation to the fans. There are no other fans that I know that have such numbers or are as fantastic as the Celtic fans. We need to show how grateful we are.”
