Boxer Lee was on at half-time but fight was already over
McGregor fails to inspire Jambos as Celts run rings round them to pile on the agony
the challengers, albeit with a game more played.
Still it’s points on the board and puts the pressure on Steven Gerrard’s side ahead of their own trip to the capital to play Hibs tomorrow night.
Hearts need to pick themselves up off the canvas, and quickly. Five changes to the side that lost against St Johnstone at the weekend proves Stendel is still finding out about the players he has at his disposal and how best to deploy them.
He’ll need time to properly work that out, but time isn’t necessarily something he has given the precarious position his team is in. They of course have been missing their heavy hitters for a good part of this season.
Steven Naismith, Peter Haring, John Souttar and Conor Washington would at least give them a fighting chance of climbing the Premiership table.
According to Stendel, a return for the majority isn’t likely to happen any time soon, and he clearly isn’t content to go with those currently in his stable until that happens.
The German spoke this week about the urgent need to add quality to his squad in January.
Owner Ann Budge said at the club’s AGM she expected to be handed “quite a list” of targets by the new manager. He’ll have to ship out a number of his underperforming squad for that to be possible however.
The process to hire a sporting director to take some of that load off Stendel’s plate is underway, but as to when an appointment might be made remains unclear.
In the meantime, there’s the strange situation of ex-interim boss Austin MacPhee working on recruitment “from home”.
Of more pressing concern is Saturday’s bottom of the table clash away to Hamilton, a game in which they now have no option but to come out swinging.
With an Edinburgh derby and Aberdeen to come at Tynecastle before the winter break, Hearts face the very real possibility of picking up no points and being bottom of the league as 2019 becomes 2020.
Even if things aren’t looking quite that bleak, they’re in a scrap for the foreseeable future.