Celtic Deserved The Win Last Night, And Ange Was Right To Slap Robbie Neilson Down.

Earlier on, I wrote about how well the defence played last night and in particular big Carl Starfelt. But I also said that the man of the match award could have easily gone to McGregor.

Or Rogic who I thought was sensational and certainly didn’t look like someone who had been out of the team for over a month.

He is transformed under Ange. It’s amazing.

Amidst it all there is controversy about the goal. I’ll have plenty to say about that later in the day, but I actually had to laugh both at Robbie Neilson’s comments in the aftermath of the game and Ange’s brilliant and measured response to his wailing.

It’s a pity too, you know, because Neilson deserves a lot of credit for bringing his team to Parkhead last night to actually try to play football, to actually have a go at us.

He spoils that and makes himself sound daft with stupid remarks about how the referee beat then and not the fact that we were excellent and thoroughly deserved the victory.

Big Ange didn’t let him away with that one, did he? “Anyone who thinks that was watching a different game,” he said, and of course he’s correct.

We deserved the three points because we were so much the better team, playing the better stuff, dominating possession and the chances count.

Yes there was some controversy over the goal but we should have had a couple more and a 3-0 or 4-0 wouldn’t have flattered us at all last night, because we were that good.

What was most impressive last night was the way we pressed and harried and harassed them every time they came up the pitch. Our breakaways were rapid and dangerous.

That’s something that’s been missing from the team in big Rogic’s absence and you could see the difference he made to the whole top half of the pitch. Hearts defended well, as well as Celtic did in fact, but let’s not muck about; it was Craig Gordon who stopped that being comfortable.

I like Neilson. I have seen Hearts teams that were built on sheer thuggery.

He appears to want to build his own team on the ability to actually play football; I’m a big admirer of the way he sets them up and the way he wants them to perform.

He didn’t sour that last night with his words, but he disappointed me and I’m sure he will have disappointed big Ange who must have enjoyed watching that a hell of a lot more than the dirge you see up against the likes of Livingston and their brand of anti-football.

The big man was right to slap his daft comments down.

Because that was a hard fought Celtic win against a well organised team who came to have a pop at us.

Those are satisfying games to win for that reason.

Neilson should have been proud of his players and himself; he didn’t need to go looking for excuses, and that’s exactly all that he did at the end. I was glad that our manager was having none of it.