BRENDAN WHO?
Lenny Rodgers Hearts as his tactical switch sets up winner
IT’S not about bringing back the thunder this time for Neil Lennon. It’s about bringing back the title.
Last night in a towsy tear-up at Tynecastle the returning boss took a huge step towards doing so.
Anything Brendan Rodgers can do, so can Lennon, eh?
In the Parkhead side’s last away game under Rodgers at Kilmarnock, Scott Brown scored a last-minute winner to move the Hoops eight points clear.
This time in Lenny’s first one away, it was the skipper setting one up for Odsonne Edouard in injury-time to keep it that way.
You really could not have scripted it for the new gaffer.
Leading 1-0 through a sizzling James Forrest goal and also with a man advantage after Hearts kid Jamie Brandon was red-carded on his first start for 14 month, the plan was going to script for Lennon.
Then a harrowing turn of events saw his team gift an equaliser to the 10 men – a penalty struck home by Ollie Bozanic.
In the past at this venue he’d been attacked by a moron and pelted by a coin. This time it was his own team who had inflicted the damage.
But there was a Rodgers-esque twist and it was a triumph for Lennon.
He put Edouard on, then made the switch to push him up front and move Oliver Burke to a wide area – so no wonder Lennon went daft with delight at full-time.
It was a brutal moment for Hearts. Craig Levein’s team did superbly to hang on for so long through a secondperiod shift and came agonisingly close to holding out.
But it was just always going to be about Lennon.
The fans told Rodgers he’d “traded immortality for mediocrity” with a banner. But he was just a memory by full-time as they partied with their new leader and their heroes in joyous scenes.
It was an astounding finale and it wasn’t just a sublime finish from Edouard. It was a massive statement for Lennon at the end of an epic evening.
It was fevered throughout. When Lennon dispelled any notions that he might sit in the stand and marched into the technical area just before kick-off, it cranked up the atmosphere. It was lift-off among both sets of fans.
Understandably, that frantic nature dripped on to the field. The ball barely got a moment to breathe for 30 minutes as it rattled between the players.
Hearts came to terms with it all first. Levein had made alterations from his previous team.
Brandon and Marcus Godinho returned to the starting line-up but although the former would not last long, they did cause Celtic some moments of stress.
Olly Lee fired a strike from distance that Scott Bain grabbed and Sean Clare’s tremendous volley required an outstanding fingertip save from the Celtic keeper.
Lennon arrived at Tynecastle without an entire midfield of Tom Rogic, Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie and the champions took time to find fluency.
Scott Brown was back from a ban to assist kid Ewan Henderson and Nir Bitton and it was the captain who first came closest for the away side.
The skipper’s sizzling half-volley from the edge of the box needed Hearts No.1 Zdenek Zlamal to beat it away. It wasn’t pretty but it was engrossing. Sadly, in the current climate of trying to stamp out sectarianism, it brought unsavoury stuff from the Celtic end and there also distasteful chants from a corner of the home section.
If that was an attack of the ears, the game was an attack on all the senses and it would go up a notch in 10 mad minutes before half-time.
Peter Haring, booked for an early tackle on Kristoffer Ajer, escaped a second yellow from referee Stevie McLean when bundling through Bain at a high ball and the battle clouded Dedryck Boyata’s mind to nearcalamitous effect when he gifted possession to Steven Naismith.
The Belgian was fortunate the striker scuffed his shot. But Celtic’s
attackers would not be so generous when their chance came 10 minutes from the interval for the opening goal.
Henderson put Scott Sinclair away on a rapid break and the speed was frightening.
The winger moved it inside to Burke with Hearts stripped bare and he unselfishly squared across the box for Forrest to rifle into the empty net.
It was simply devastating and it sparked a chain of events to turn it Lennon’s way.
Burke was denied by Zlamal then Brandon’s decision to raise an arm towards the face of Jeremy Toljan as the pair attacked a high ball was not smart. McLean already had booked four but it was red he reached for this time and suddenly, having dropped a goal down, Hearts were also a man down.
They had to hang on to the interval and Zlamal saved a deflected strike from Burke then the keeper did magnificently to scramble away an attempted rebound effort from Sinclair before the half ended.
Hearts needed a regroup. Bozanic replaced Naismith in a reshuffle and it was going to take something special or a turn of events to fight back.
In the end it was a turn of events. A crazy one at that from Celtic’s point of view 11 minutes after the resumption.
Bain took a chance playing a pass to Ajer in his own box and the Norwegian showed lack of awareness and urgency as Arnaud Djoum shut him down. Ajer tumbled him in the box and McLean said penalty.
It was a careless mistake but Bozanic wasn’t bothered and drilled a superb spot-kick to Bain’s right as the keeper went the other way. It set up some finish.
Celtic had to try to win it again. Lennon pitched in Edouard and the Frenchman’s powerful run and rifle just over was a signal of his intent before he produced with virtually the last kick.
Brown’s chipped ball into the Hearts box dropped on to Edouard’s boot and the substitute’s volley completed a remarkable return for Lennon.