William Hill Scottish Cup 4th Round Sunday 1 December 2013 – Tynecastle Stadium
The last two winners of the William Hill Scottish Cup clashed at Tynecastle on Sunday in front of 10,636 fans and several hundred thousand watching on BBC Scotland television. Much has changed for the 2012 winners in the intervening period since their 5-1 triumph over Hibernian and this was evident as the current cup holders put them to the sword in Gorgie.
Hearts were destroyed by a devastating first half display by the best team in Scotland. Kris Commons began the rout with a shot that went in off the post after just three minutes and he added a second in the 21st minute. Former Hibernian player Scott Brown made it three in the 34th minute before Ledley and Lustig added to Hearts woes to make the half-time score an astonishing 5-0 to Celtic.
Hearts were the victim of a harsh decision by referee Willie Collum on the hour mark when he awarded the visitors a penalty after Danny Wilson appeared to handle Commons’ shot in the penalty box – although deciding it was intentional seemed to be stretching things a bit. Commons duly despatched the penalty to complete his hat-trick for Celtic’s sixth. Brown grabbed his double and Celtic’s seventh goal 15 minutes from the end to complete a thoroughly miserable afternoon for Hearts.
Hearts: MacDonald, McGhee, McHattie, Hamill, McGowan, Wilson, Robinson, Smith, Paterson, Stevenson, Walker
Celtic: Forster, Lustig, Izaguirre, Biton, Ambrose, van Dijk, Brown, Ledley, Stokes, Commons, Mulgrew
Referee: Willie Collum
Att: 10,636
Top man: I’ll pass on this. Today was one to forget for every Hearts player and supporter
Author of The Team for Me - 50 Years of Following Hearts. Runs Mind Generating Success, a successful therapy practice in Edinburgh. Contact me if you want rid of any unwanted habits. Twitter @Mike1874
