Hartson secures title for Celtic

Celtic 1 Hearts 0:  John Hartson gift-wrapped the championship for Gordon Strachan with a 31st birthday winner against second-placed Hearts at Parkhead.

The Edinburgh outfit arrived in the east end of Glasgow keen to delay the coronation and keep Rangers at arm's length as the two sides battle it out for a Champions League spot.

But Hartson rewarded the faith of his manager, to bring him back into the side, with a third-minute decider to give Strachan his second trophy in his first season in charge of the Hoops.

The destination of the SPL trophy and CIS Insurance Cup are now known but the Tennent's Scottish Cup finalists, who had interim-manager Valdas Ivanauskas sent to the stands, are three points ahead of Alex McLeish's side with just six games remaining.

Strachan brought back Hartson for Dion Dublin in the only change from the team who won at Livingston.

And Hartson did not disappoint by giving the home side a dream start after just three minutes.

Maciej Zurawski nodded on a long punt down field from Artur Boruc to the Welshman.

He struck a sweet right-foot shot, which seemed to bounce over the despairing dive of Craig Gordon for his 18th goal of the campaign.

Zurawski picked out his strike partner again in the 12th minute but Robbie Neilson did enough to put him off and this time the Scotland goalkeeper comfortably saved his header from seven yards out.

But Hartson was booked moments later for a foul on the Hearts full-back which almost brought an equaliser against the run of play.

Bednar spun, just inside the box, and sent a low right-foot effort toward the bottom corner.

But Boruc threw himself to his left to clip the ball behind, with Andy Webster waiting to pounce.

Hearts thought they had an equaliser in the 49th minute when Webster bundled the ball over the line, from Bednar's knockdown, but the linesman looked to be spot on as he flagged for offside.

But Bednar almost shocked Boruc in the 56th minute when he hit a first-time shot, from the angle of the box, towards the far corner of the net but the goalkeeper got down to flick the ball wide.

Strachan swapped Nakamura with Stephen Pearson a minute later before Fyssas was yellow-carded for a bad challenge on Petrov.

The home fans were also getting anxious as Boruc stretched to turn away Skacel's long-range strike and Mark Wilson blocked Deividas Cesnauskis' follow-up shot.

Hartson then received a standing ovation when he left the field to be replaced by Dublin in the 70th minute.

The Celtic supporters started to sing about their title success after referee Dougie McDonald had rejected Hearts' claims of a penalty when Bednar went down under the challenge of Balde. PA