Derek McInnes is building something weighty here. He knows it but he’s got far too much savvy to crow about it. He’s measured and meticulous and mightily impressive right now.
Hearts are great to watch – and from McInnes you get a sense that there’s a lot more to come. More new players arriving, others just coming back into the team after injury. Not bit-parters, but big-timers, or so he hopes.
There were many moments that stuck in the mind’s eye. The relentless nature of the way Hearts began the game, going at Celtic’s jugular in a way that only teams with true belief really can.
They got their reward with a goal, Dane Murray panicking and hoofing the ball into his own net instead of making a clearance that should have been routine.
Celtic put it up to them in the 15 minutes that followed. They scored and should have scored again, but didn’t. They’d regret it.
You can’t fake confidence. You either have it or you don’t. The way Hearts roared back and won was the greatest illustration of their merits we’ve seen so far.
And a signal of Celtic’s weakness. Showing Kyziridis the inside and inviting him to have a crack is a fool’s errand, but that’s what they did and that’s how they fell behind again.
Making jumpy decisions when under the cosh is not the way to survive a trial at Tynecastle, but that’s what Murray did when bringing down Braga for Shankland’s penalty.
In the preamble, Rodgers said that he was including Murray along with Colby Donovan and Jonny Kenny because sometimes youth has no fear. It did here. Murray was exposed and Kenny was a bystander.
