Deila left frustrated by shot-shy Celtic

They now stand four points adrift of an Aberdeen side who lost their first league game of the season to Inverness at the weekend and while they will fully be expected to eat into that lead as the weeks go on, there is a lethargy that Deila’s men will want to shift.

As the leaves start to turn and the nights draw in, Ronny Deila can only hope that his strikers have not headed into hibernation. Had his first-half volley that smacked off the woodwork gone in there was a feeling that Celtic could have scored as many as they wanted to.

“But that type of player is what we have been looking for”.

He said: “I think he hasn’t played for a little while, but you can still see he’s a good player”.

“If we had got one then there would have been more spaces and I think we would have got even more”.

But the striker, who had netted in six consecutive league matches going into the game, fluffed a number of opportunities in an exasperating afternoon.

“In Europe you get punished harder and you need to punish them when you get the chance”.

“But we also know he has been consistent in the Premier League for a long time and he has a lot of qualities that we are looking for in matches like we saw against Hearts“.

“He’s experienced and he looks very good in the box”. Someone needs to sacrifice themselves on the first post to make space for others.

Hearts stopped the rot after losing their previous 10 games against Celtic by a staggering aggregate margin of 33 goals.

The foul denied Nicholson a clear goal-scoring opportunity and Deila apportioned the blame on the rest of the Nigerian defender’s team-mates.

Manager Robbie Neilson said: “It is a huge task for us, a team promoted in the summer coming up against the champions who have won four league titles in a row”.

Oshaniwa said he was excited to have played against his Super Eagles teammate Efe Ambrose in the encounter.

Our performance today was good.

In the 32nd minute the busy former Rangers keeper thwarted Griffiths again before saving Bitton’s long-range effort as the Hoops fans wondered if it was going to be one of those days.

The Nigerian centre-back was brandished with a straight red card for dragging back Sam Nicholson as the Jambos midfielder surged towards goal.