HEARTS OF MIDLOTHIAN AND 585 DAYS

Today (in 2023) is the Scottish League Cup Final, with Rangers playing Aberdeen at Hampden Park. Glasgow rivals Celtic were knocked out of the competition in August last year! 1-0 by Kilmarnock. (Kilmarnock is a town, south west of Glasgow by about 25 miles with a population of around 46,000). Rangers, scoring after 76 mins from Tavernier's strike, won 1-0. Aberdeen continued their record of not winning a trophy since winning this competition in 2014.

But getting back to the main theme of today's historic blog!! ON 17^th December 2017 Hearts played Celtic, in the Scottish Premiership, winning 4-0, and at last a Scottish club had defeated Celtic!! 

The last time Celtic had suffered a domestic defeat was 2-1 at St Johnstone on 11th May 2016 – 585 days previously. The 69 unbeaten domestic matches they had played since then created a Scottish – and British – record. They had bettered the previous record of 62 matches when beating St Johnstone 4-0 on November 4th 2017, a record Celtic themselves had set between 1915 and 1917. 

The run was also a personal achievement for their manager, Brendan Rodgers, in his first spell in Scottish football, with the Irishman having been in charge for all but the first of those 69 matches. Sadly though the record highlighted not only Celtic’s dominance in Scotland but perhaps also the declining status of Scottish football with Celtic’s achievements not being repeated in Europe. 

Over the same period against the better clubs in Europe – in the Champions League Group stages - Celtic managed just one win in twelve matches and suffered seven goal thumpings against both Barcelona and Paris St Germain.

But in this year, with Christmas on its way and with two goals in the first half hour at Celtic Park, Hearts squeezed a 0-2 win with goals from Shankland and Kingsley. Celtic had 78% possession and 22 shots compared to Hearts' 5 shots with Celtic making 652 passes to Heart's 204.