Thorburn’s goal breaks Hearts
Most of the action and incident came in the first half with Celtic doing well to maintain their discipline against some brutal defending with the referee looking well out of his depth and afraid to make any decision of significance.
Shortly after Thorburn’s goal Michael Johnston was scythed down in the box without any action being taken. Later in the first half Lewis Bell found himself on the deck with a Hearts defender raking his studs across the midfielders hip similar to the incident that got Stoke’s Charlie Adam sent off against West Brom yesterday. Despite having a clear view of the incident the referee and his assistant refused to take action.
Michael O’Halloran was forced into a couple of changes after Shaun Bowyers and Broque Watson returned injured from international duty with Scotland in Romania.
Stephen Welsh came in for Bowyers at left back, Thorburn moved forward to replace Watson with Dan Church coming in at left-back.
Kerr McInroy partnered Bell in the centre of midfield with Blair Kidd coming in for Robbie Deas to partner Wallace Duffy at the back.
Bell put down a marker in the sixth minute with a 25 yard effort that struck the crossbar with the Hearts goalkeeper left helpless as the ball sailed over his head.
Jack Aitchison was wrestled to the floor two minutes later but in the tenth minute the hoops took the lead. Dan McAllister and Aitchison opened up the Hearts defence on the right side of the penalty box with Thorburn coming in from the left to force the ball into the net after the ball was squared across goal.
Celtic should have put the game beyond Hearts but were let down by poor finishing with the visiting goalkeeper pulling off a number of good saves with Aitchison and Johnston failing to convert when put through one on one.
Ten minutes into the second half Thorburn and McInroy were replaced by Kieran Campbell and Christian Antoniazzi and while Hearts were able to snuff out Celtic’s attacking instincts they were unable to create any real chances of their own.
Bell took a head knock late on trying to connect with a corner from Johnston as Celtic saw out the ninety minutes to maintain their 100% record three matches into the new campaign.
CELTIC: Conor Hazard: Stephen Welsh, Wallace Duffy, Blair Kidd, Dan Church; Lewis Bell (Dylan McKendry 88), Kerr McInroy (Kieran Campbell 55) ; Dan McAllister, Michael Johnston, Grant Thorburn ( Christian Antoniazzi 55); Jack Aitchison