Third-placed Hearts could have snatched all three points themselves when Sam Nicholson burst through on goal in the closing stages, but he was cynically felled by Efe Ambrose, who received his marching orders after saving a share of the spoils for his side.
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Aberdeen’s 2-1 defeat at Inverness left Celtic four points behind the league leaders.
“It was a good one for our young boys to see”. “But I was very irritated that we couldn’t get more chances out of all the crosses we had in the second-half and that we were not more effective in the first-half”.
I’m sure we had about 70 per cent possession and we created chances. Yesterday they both tensed up in this embryonic title race that we are all, perhaps prematurely, engrossed by, and dropped points accordingly.
“It couldn’t be clearer than what you seen today”, said Deila, suggesting that it was the ideal situation for Cole.
He said: “You need someone who has different skills than the players we have and Carlton has that, so we will see what happens there”. “They have started well in the league, they are up at the top, but everybody can lose a game – it’s how they react to it. We just have to make ourselves prepared and play at our best, then we’ll have a good chance to beat them”.
“At the moment he is in London”. Maybe he will come back again next week. Fenerbahce is a big club who has spent a lot of money so I’m sure it will be a huge game.
Ciftci and Griffiths did not combine particularly well when they got the nod to play together for the final 15 minutes of this encounter but there is an argument to suggest that they need time on the pitch together to cement some kind of understanding.
Ronny Deila says that Carlton Cole is “positive” about Celtic after the striker trained with the club. He has been to the games here and he sees opportunities to score a lot of goals here.
Hearts Head Coach Robbie Neilson isn’t averse to changing his team and he made four changes from the side that knocked Kilmarnock out of the League Cup on Wednesday evening with Jamie Walker, Juwon Oshaniwa, Miguel Pallardo and Juanma all starting.
“He’ll be involved against Celtic and I’m confident he’ll prove a good addition to our team”.
In the 32nd minute the busy former Rangers keeper thwarted Griffiths again before saving Bitton’s long-range effort as the Hoops fans wondered if it was going to be one of those days.
“Yes, he got a red card but it shows the experience he has got”.
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Celtic boss Ronny Deila thought the goalless draw was “hard to believe”, given the hosts’ first-half dominance.
