Hartley sees long and winding road to the title

Celtic midfielder Paul Hartley is expecting the unexpected this season in the Old Firm’s battle for the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Unusually, the Glasgow giants failed to win their respective league games on Saturday.

Rangers were held to a 2-2 draw by Dundee United in their lunchtime kick-off at Tannadice, leaving Celtic with a chance to open up a six-point lead at the top of the table when they faced Hearts at Parkhead.

However, the champions needed a Stephen McManus header 11 minutes from time to get them a point after Andrew Driver had fired the in-form Jambos ahead in the first half.

Hartley was reluctant to concede that the Hoops had missed a chance to turn the screw on their great rivals and predicted a protracted and exciting championship race ahead.

It’s going to be a long season, with twists and turns,” the Scotland midfielder said.

To be honest with you the Rangers result didn’t have that much effect on us but the good thing was that we didn’t get beat. It just shows you the mentality of the squad and the spirit within it."

Boss Gordon Strachan arguably suffered a bigger blow when midfielder Shaun Maloney limped off in the first half with a hamstring injury that will keep him out until the new year.

Hartley tried to put Maloney’s injury into context in a season that has already seen several Hoops players such as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Georgios Samaras and Marc Crosas all out for long spells through injury.

He said: “Shaun has been scoring recently and playing well so it’s a blow.

“We’ve had major injuries this season and this is another one.

“It’s hard to tell with a hamstring but you only have to look at Marc Crosas who was out for eight

weeks to know it’s bad.”