Celtic stun Hibs to delay Ibrox title party

Celtic scored two goals in the last 10 minutes to stun Hibernian 3-2 at Parkhead on Saturday to delay a potential title party for arch rivals Rangers at Ibrox.

Neil Lennon’s 100 per cent league record since he took over as caretaker was under threat after a superb strike from Derek Riordan and a controversial Anthony Stokes penalty had cancelled out Robbie Keane’s early opener.

However substitute Morten Rasmussen popped up three minutes from time to seal a remarkable comeback after Marc-Antoine Fortune had tapped in an 80th minute equaliser.

Rangers, who host Hearts at Ibrox on Sunday, are now eight points clear of the Hoops at the top of the Scottish Premier League and need five points from their remaining five matches to clinch a second successive title.

Lennon said it was the type of performance Celtic should have shown in their Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Ross County last week.

“I thought we deserved to win but we missed too many chances and that is symptomatic of our season,” said Lennon.

“There were big performances from big players today and they got what they deserved.”

John Hughes felt his side had sat back after going 2-1 ahead.

“To be 2-1 up with ten minutes to go at Parkhead, there is a real disappointment that we never took something from the football match,” the Hibs boss said.

Celtic made two changes with Artur Boruc returning in goal for the first time since the death of his father while Fortune came in for Diomansy Kamara.

After drawing a blank in his previous two matches on-loan Tottenham striker Keane was quick to get off the mark in the fourth minute to make it 13 goals in 15 matches.

A misplaced pass from Darren McCormack was intercepted by Aiden McGeady and his cross from the left was sidefooted home from six yards by Keane.

Celtic have struggled defensively all season and former player Riordan exposed their frailties just two minutes later. Stokes laid the ball off to Riordan who arrowed a superb strike into the bottom left-hand corner of the net from 20 yards.

Stokes was involved again when he cut a ball across the six-yard box for Colin Nish but he mis-hit his effort and Celtic cleared the danger. McGeady twisted and turned in the box before lofting a high pass to the back post where Fortune somehow managed to head over the bar from four yards out.

Fortune and Keane both came close as an entertaining first-half came to an end. Celtic started the second-half strongly with Thompson heading over McGinn’s corner and Fortune smacking a shot from an acute angle off the post.

However it was Hibs who took the lead in controversial circumstances when they were awarded what looked a soft penalty in the 54th minute as Thompson connected with Stokes as he attempted to boot the ball clear.

The striker took the resultant kick and despite Boruc going the right way he tucked the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.

Celtic, already dealing with a central defender injury crisis, were dealt another blow when Darren O’Dea hobbled off to be replaced by Andreas Hinkel.

However Fortune’s 80th minute equaliser helped make amends. Stack made a great point-blank save from Keane as he connected with McGeady’s cross but the ball fell to Fortune for a simple tap-in.

Rasmussen sealed the remarkable comeback when he slid in to turn Fortune’s cross from the right past Stack with three minutes remaining.

Elsewhere Aberdeen defeated bottom placed Falkirk 1-0, Hamilton thrashed Kilmarnock 3-0 while St Johnstone came from two behind to draw 2-2 with St Mirren.