When Celtic score seven it seems odd to talk about pieces of defending they did that were significant, but Colby Donovan’s cameos warrant mention.
Around the midpoint of the first half, Hearts stirred a little. You wouldn’t say that they had momentum, but they had a bit of a possession and their hair-on-fire panic of the early minutes seemed under control.
Twice in the space of three minutes, Josh McPake – one of the form players in the country – took on Donovan and twice Donovan routed him.
Those little duels might disappear from relevance after the deluge, but at the time they were important. The Hearts dangerman had been snuffed out. His morale had taken a hiding. And the stadium loved it.
Hearts fell apart at the seams from there. Sabri Guendouz gave the ball away and Duran combined with the impressive Osmand to score number three.
Jamie McCart then became detached from his trolley and Celtic scored from that error, too. Osmand, again, but with lovely work from Duran. And easy, oh so easy.
Celtic’s pace in attack was terrific. Their alertness was outstanding. Their disbelief was there, too. How could a team with a seemingly good coach and a strong squad of players be performing like a pub team?
Hearts fans started heading home at that point. They missed the goal that made it 4-1. They won’t have shed any tears. Had they gone back they’d only have suffered on. Best get out of dodge as quickly as possible.
Soon, it was 5-1, Mika Baur slaloming his way past the comatose figures of McPake and Malachi Fagan-Walcott to dink a shot on goal, helped on its way by Kingsley and McCart, sitting on the floor, all flailing legs, like an octopus who had fallen out of a tree.