Hearts storm-troopers stun Celtic as gaffer’s decision to rest key
4-4-2 Brendan Rodgers gambled and lost. Only the next 72 hours will tell him whether it was worth it.
At least he has 36 more games to recover the points it cost him. There are no doggy lives for losing to AEK Athens on Tuesday.
But what he’ll have learned – and presumably his board got the memo – is that his ‘ B’ team is no longer deep enough or good enough to see off a Hearts side who announced themselves as a seriously potent force in the title race.
Kyle Lafferty’s 56th minute goal – a sweet volley – was all that separated the teams in a brutal war of attrition but there is no question Craig Levein’s men are value for their place at the top of the table.
And the Hearts boss admitted they sensed blood in the water when they saw a Hoops teamsheet missing five certain starters.
Levein said: “I don’t know what he thought but Brendan had serious decisions to make. The Champions League is worth a hell of a lot more money to them than beating Hearts in a league game.
“I’m absolutely positive he was confident he could do both. So he did make changes and it was another thing, along with our form and recent performances here against Celtic.
“There were enough positive thoughts for us to go into the game absolutely believing we had a chance of winning – that was evident by the last 10 minutes of the match, how manfully we defended.
“It proved we can be competitive and we edged it. We were focused, fit, we lasted right to the end.”
The only down side for Levein was the loss of influential skipper Christophe Berra at half-time with a hamstring injury and he admitted: “It’s a worry. He’ll be a big loss. But what was significant was John Souttar taking the armband at halftime and leading like Christophe does. By example. By competing for everything, winning headers, he’s getting better and better.”
Against a backdrop of disquiet over unfulf il led ambition and question marks over the absent Dedryck Boyata’s future, Celtic left £9million striker Odsonne Edouard, James Forrest, Tom Rogic and Olivier Ntcham on the bench, with Kris Ajer another starter rested ahead of his Euro suspension. There was a theory the boss was doing it to make a point, but when you consider the money spent on the likes of Eboue Kouassi, Jonny Hayes and Jack Hendry, and the pedigree of Leigh Grif f iths and Scott Sinclair, it would be hard to know what that point was.
Either way, they were terrorised by a former Cambridge United striker in Uche Ikpeazu and controlled in the middle of the park by a relegated Austrian League centre-half turned midfielder in Peter Haring.
Buoyed by their opening day win over Hamilton and no doubt gorging on re-runs of the 69- game- ending win over the Hoops here last term, they set about their press