A troublesome 90 minutes for Steven Naismith and his squad as Celtic thrashed the Tyencastle side 4-1 in Edinburgh on Sunday (22 October).
It took only four minutes for Scottish Premiership man of the moment Matt O’Riley to secure the Hoops first goal and they had no intention of stopping for the remaining 86 minutes. Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi and Tomoki Iwata all added their names to the scoresheet with Lawrence Shankland managing to give the Hearts fans a beacon of hope as he fired in his first goal in eight games.
Hearts will travel to Ibrox next weekend to face a side who also secured a dominant win over an Edinburgh side this weekend and it will be an extremely testing week for Naismith, who will hope to secure some much-needed points when Sunday 29 October comes around,
Ahead of what will likely be a trying few days for the Hearts’ squad, here are some of the main takeaways from yesterday’s fixture...
1. Steven Naismith
That’s four losses for Hearts now this season. They’re still sitting in fourth but that could soon change when the postponed matches are rescheduled.
2. Celtic’s penalty
Alex Cochrane was the unlucky recipient of a penalty against him. Celtic missed the resulting strike but it does not take away from the controversial decision to award the penalty.
3. Beni Baningime
The Congolese midfielder is still struggling after returning from his ACL injury this season. He is offering little off the bench at the moment.
4. Lawrence Shankland
Shankland ended his eight match goal-drought with a consolation second-half goal which briefly lifted the Jambos fans’ spirits. It may not have done much for the resulting score but it will please both fans and players to see their captain once agian back to scoring ways.