The Bhoys Fall Further Behind After Loss To Hearts

Hearts 2 Celtic 1

Celtic fell four points behind their cross-town rivals after giving up the lead against Hearts on Sunday, while Rangers decimated Motherwell at Ibrox and beat Dundee United in their rescheduled mid-week fixture.

Celtic took the lead in the 21st minute when Scott McDonald headed a Robson corner into the far post with Georgios Samaras the first to the rebound and poking the ball into the back of the net.

Despite the lead, the Bhoys kept looking for a second, but sloppy finishing and some bad luck held them back.

Hearts equalized when, a poor clearance from Glenn Loovens fell to Jamie Mole who was clipped in the box by Gary Caldwell.

As the last man, referee Willie Collum had no choice but to show a straight red to the Celtic defender and award a penalty that was converted by Michael Stewart.

Even a man-short, Celtic looked the better side but poor finishing continued to haunt them.

Hearts second followed a great play by David Templeton who ran past Fortune and deliivered a ball to a lurking Ismael Bouzid who headed it in from 10 yards out.

The Scottish Premier League have ruled out the reintroduction of a winter break next season, at the same time confirming that the League will resume for the 2010/11 season on Saturday August 14.

While the SPL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster did accept that there were good reasons for taking a break over the Christmas and New Year, such as avoiding postponements due to bad weather and reducing the risks to players through injury, he said that there were insufficient free mid-week dates to allow its reintroduction.

"Unfortunately, UEFA have decreed that leagues cannot schedule midweek fixture cards against Champions League or Europa League fixtures," he explained.

"Together, with the fixture congestion caused by various cup games and replays, and once every two years a World Cup or European Championships, there just is not the scope to fit a winter break into the fixture calendar."

Rumors surfaced on Friday that defenders Mark Wilson and Paul Caddis could both be leaving Celtic in the January transfer window, the pair citing a lack of regular first team football as the reason.

First team coach Peter Grant accepted their reasoning but insisted that: "We don't want anyone to leave the club, we want to add quality.

"Having been here and left, I know there's no-where bigger than Celtic."