Celtic on brink of title after Hearts victory

Celtic effectively put the Scottish Premiership title beyond the reach of Rangers after coming from behind to beat Hearts 4-1.

The victory put Celtic nine points and 22 goals ahead of Rangers, who have three games left starting with Sunday's Ibrox clash with Dundee United.

Only an unprecedented collapse could prevent Celtic officially confirming their 10th title in 11 seasons before or after their final two cinch Premiership games against Dundee United and Motherwell.

The Celtic Park crowd were not waiting to celebrate as they hailed the achievements of Ange Postecoglou and his players, who lost their first three away games of the campaign before embarking on an unbeaten league run that stands at 30 games.

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Ellis Simms threatened to spoil the party when he fired Hearts into an early lead but Celtic turned the game around before half-time in controversial fashion through goals from Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi.

Matt O'Riley's goal midway through the second half put the game and the destiny of the title beyond doubt and substitute Giorgos Giakoumakis got in on the goalscoring act.

Hearts started on the front foot and took the lead inside three minutes as Simms lashed home from 12 yards after Liam Boyce had helped on Alex Cochrane's cross. Carl Starfelt appealed for offside as he failed to cut out the flick-on but his trailing leg was probably playing Simms on.

The on-loan Everton forward had a chance to add to his tally but Josh Ginnelly's cross was inches too high and he could not get enough power on his header to beat Joe Hart.

Celtic pushed forward and Craig Gordon made an excellent stop from David Turnbull before saving Furuhashi's header. Turnbull then teed up O'Riley but the midfielder's effort was