Paddy McCourt seals Celtic win but Hearts fume over "offside" goals

Neil Lennon's Celtic revolution already has one distinct advantage over that attempted by Tony Mowbray a year ago. Namely, that it is not being carried out to the detriment of domestic results. Celtic made it four Scottish Premier League wins out of four over a Hearts side who had arrived undefeated. They left harbouring a strong sense of injustice after controversial goals from James Forrest and Shaun Maloney settled the game before the break. There was time in the closing stages for the kind of goal that apparently only Paddy McCourt can score. The Irish winger, a maverick, danced through the Hearts defence and clipped the ball home in typically casual style. If McCourt had fitness and consistency to match his undoubted talent, he would be some player. Lennon watched his latest in a long line of debutants, Anthony Stokes, enjoy a leisurely rather than influential afternoon in the Celtic attack. The manager even had the luxury of withdrawing his captain, Scott Brown, for the final half-hour – the midfielder is unable to train due to an ankle problem and needs as many leisurely afternoons as he can get. The early-season form of Maloney, conversely, continues to impress. Given his troubles with injury and form since returning to Parkhead from Aston Villa in 2008, Maloney has become the new signing Celtic did not parade this summer. Hearts were angered by what they regarded as two first-half refereeing mistakes, on first viewing legitimately. The visitors had been perfectly comfortable, even hitting a Celtic post through Suso Santana, before the incident which always looked like defining the game. Assistant referee Francis Andrews was the man who received the full wrath of the Hearts bench after failing to flag Daryl Murphy offside when collecting a Maloney pass. Murphy picked out Forrest at the back post, with the youngster tapping in his second goal of the campaign. Willie Collum, the referee, could have made a beeline for any member of the Hearts coaching staff as Celtic celebrated. It was the manager, Jim Jefferies, though, who was sent to watch the remainder of the match from the stand. Jefferies, then, had a perfect view of the next contentious incident, which again led to a Celtic goal. This time Maloney appeared suspiciously close to being in an offside position when played in by Stokes. The diminutive front man understandably thought little of such a possibility, rounding Marian Kello and essentially putting the game out of Hearts' reach. While Jefferies will point to officialdom as the source of Celtic's definitive advantage, his plans have been seriously undermined by the loss of two key defenders. Lee Wallace, his left-back and best player, will miss around three months after sustaining a knee injury while representing Scotland against Liechtenstein. Marius Zaliukas, the Hearts captain, although currently injured, is highly unlikely to play for the club again due to a contract dispute. They could not be accused of wilting after the break, but they never displayed the creative touch that suggested a comeback would be forthcoming. Maloney missed from close-range and Kello saved smartly from Georgios Samaras as Celtic looked to replicate their previous home outing, in which they knocked four goals past St Mirren. They had to settle for three, but will take solace from watching McCourt's sublime effort. Cue the first chants of "We're gonna win the league" from the Parkhead stands. In early September? Surely some kind of record.