Celtic’s Leigh Griffiths reacts to missing an opportunity to score against Heart of Midlothian during their Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park yesterday. (Reuters)

AFP/Glasgow


Celtic closed the gap behind Aberdeen at the top of the Scottish Premiership to four points despite being held to a goalless draw at home to Hearts yesterday.
However, the Hoops—reduced to 10 men in stoppage time when Efe Ambrose received a straight red card—were left frustrated that they couldn’t take full advantage of Aberdeen’s 2-1 defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Hearts had shipped 35 goals in their previous 10 games against Celtic but some stubborn defending helped them end that 10-game losing streak against the Glasgow giants and arrested a slump in league form that had seen them lose three consecutive matches.
Celtic manager Ronny Deila expressed his frustration at his strikers after the match.
“You can’t create more than we did in the first half and we kept them under pressure the whole time. But it’s about scoring goals and we didn’t do that today,” Deila said.
“I have to say as a manager that I’m pleased with the performance but very irritated that we didn’t get more chances out of all the crosses we had.”
Meanwhile, Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson admitted his side had been fortunate.
“I thought in the first half we rode our luck a little bit but you have to do that when you come here,” Neilson said.
“The only real disappointment is that we didn’t break as well as we could have with the pace we have.”
Top scorer Leigh Griffiths had returned to lead the line for Celtic as one of six changes Deila made from the midweek League Cup win over Raith Rovers.  
And Griffiths came close to adding to his tally early on with a fiercely-struck free-kick that stung the palms of Neil Alexander.
It had been all Celtic in the opening exchanges as they penned Hearts in their own half but, when a loose ball caused panic in the Hoops defence, Juanma Delgado sent a curling effort just over the bar.
Griffiths then turned provider as he cushioned the ball into the path of James Forrest who sent a vicious volley crashing off the post.
The Hoops proceeded to turn their noses up at a host of opportunities with Australian international Tom Rogic pulling a shot wide with only the ‘keeper to beat while Griffiths twice fluffed headers while unmarked in the box.
Some superb goalkeeping from Alexander then denied Griffiths as a deflected shot landed at his feet in the box.
Hearts emerged fired up after the break and the first real chance of the second half fell to Igor Rossi but the Jambos defender sent his header into the side netting as he connected with a cross.
The Hearts centre-half pairing of Rossi and Blazej Augustyn were resolute in their defending and repelled cross after cross that the Celtic players sent into the box.
The rare chances that did get through were dealt with by ‘keeper Alexander, while Griffiths had the ball in the net in stoppage time only for his effort to be chopped off for a foul in the build-up, much to the dismay of the home support.
And the Hoops were then reduced to 10 men as Ambrose was shown a straight red for hauling down Sam Nicholson as he bore down on goal.
Elsewhere, Aberdeen’s 100 percent start to their league campaign came to an end with defeat in Inverness. Miles Storey and Ryan Christie, who is on loan from Celtic, fired Inverness into an early 2-0 lead before Ash Taylor gave Aberdeen hope when he pulled one back just before the break.  
However, the Dons were unable to find a leveller as they dropped points for the first time this season, just days after being knocked out of the League Cup by second-tier Hibernian.
Hamilton Academical are fourth after beating Kilmarnock 2-1 at Rugby Park, while Dundee came from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Ross County.
Ten-man St Johnstone came back to beat struggling Dundee United 2-1 and bottom side Partick Thistle lost by the same scoreline at managerless Motherwell.