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Aiden McGeady served up a magnificent match-winner as the reserves went one better than their senior counterparts with a hard-fought and thoroughly deserved victory away to Hearts.
The win sees Kenny McDowall’s side advance into fifth position and Man of the Match McGeady, who’s made no secret of his frustration at a recent lack of first team involvement, struck the telling blow with a superb free-kick that merely typified the overall quality of his often-scintillating play.
...Soon, however, Marshall was again reduced to the role of mere spectator as play flowed back to the other end, where the increasingly influential McGeady showed superb skill to carved out a half-chance for Stephen Pearson that, under pressure, the midfielder could only slice wide.
...McGeady was fast becoming the game’s outstanding player and, in the dying seconds of the first half, he came within a whisker of the goal his play deserved, twisting in from the left past a bemused Ibrahim Tall only to watched in despair as his low right-foot shot same crashing back off the inside of MacDonald’s right-hand post.
This was proving a fine, competitive reserve clash, and a similar pattern of Celtic dominance emerged after the break, with the strong running of Pearson and Paul Lawson in midfield giving McGeady the platform to continue teasing the home defence with a series of mesmerizing solo runs.
...That was until, with little over a minute left, Gardyne won a free-kick 25 yards out to afford McGeady a fitting opportunity to set the seal on a vintage performance by sending the ball curling over the Hearts wall and dipping in at the helpless MacDonald’s top right-hand corner.
