Celtic returned to the top of the Scottish Premier League on Sunday after a comfortable 2-0 away win at Hearts, CNN reports.
The defending champions scored two goals in the first 20 minutes -- through Shaun Maloney and Gary Caldwell -- to give them breathing space and could even afford to miss a Paul Hartley penalty, as they re-established their three-point lead over Rangers, though their Glasgow rivals have a game in hand.
Maloney opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a powerful volley from German Andreas Hinkel's free-kick.
A goalmouth scramble in the 20th minute saw Caldwell bundle the ball into the net from a Hartley corner.
However Hartley, a former Hearts favorite, blotted his copybook six minutes into the second-half when he hit his penalty wide of the Hearts goal after Marius Zaliukas had been sent off for a foul on Celtic's Australian striker Scott McDonald.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan was satisfied with the victory, as his club prepare to face European champions Manchester United this week.
"It wasn't cosmic football, but it's a different style of game when you come here. When it gets down to 10 men, the game's dead, and we could come down a couple of gears, similar to what Manchester United did to us. When you get two or three goals up you can relax and be more comfortable."