Hearts profited from Yang Hyun-jun’s early red card to inflict a second 2-0 defeat on title-chasing Celtic within the space of three months in an incident-packed cinch Premiership showdown at Tynecastle.
The Hoops arrived in Edinburgh knowing a victory would have taken them back to the top of the league after city rivals Rangers suffered a surprise 2-1 loss at home to Motherwell the previous day.
But their hopes of achieving this feat were badly undermined during a dramatic opening quarter of an hour in which their striker Adam Idah had a penalty saved by Zander Clark and then Yang saw red for a dangerous high challenge on Alex Cochrane.
Hearts – who defeated Brendan Rodgers’ side in Glasgow in mid-December – took full advantage of the extra man as Jorge Grant scored a penalty late in the first half before Lawrence Shankland struck his 27th goal of the season on a day when Scotland manager Steve Clarke and assistant John Carver were watching from the Tynecastle stand.
The victory moved the Jambos 13 points clear in third place.
Hearts made four changes to the team that started Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at home to city rivals Hibernian as Toby Sibbick, Dexter Lembikisa, Grant and Beni Baningime replaced Frankie Kent, Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Kenneth Vargas.
There was one enforced alteration to the Celtic team that started the 7-1 midweek destruction of Dundee as captain Callum McGregor missed out with an Achilles issue. His place in midfield was taken by Paulo Bernardo.
Hearts made a bright start and they had a good chance in the eighth minute when Shankland’s cross from the right picked out Cochrane just inside the box but the left-wing-back got his shot all wrong and fluffed it well wide.
Then came a couple of huge moments in quick succession in which Celtic allowed the game to swing heavily in the hosts’ favour.
The Hoops were awarded a penalty in the 11th minute when Cochrane was deemed to have fouled Yang but Idah saw his low-struck spot-kick saved by the legs of Clark, another Hearts player looking to impress the Scotland management team in the lead-up to this summer’s European Championships.
Yang and Cochrane were again involved in the next major flashpoint just a few minutes later when the Korean midfielder caught the Englishman in the face with a high foot.
Referee Don Robertson booked the Celtic player initially but then upgraded it to a red card after being advised by VAR John Beaton to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.
This dramatic turn of events roused the home support and left Rodgers’ side facing a huge task in their quest to return to the top of the league.
Despite being a man down, Celtic did have the ball in the net in the 22nd minute when Bernardo’s low angled shot went in off both posts but the flag instantly went up to cut short the celebrations, with Idah offside in the lead-up.
Hearts sensed their chance of victory, however, and Alan Forrest headed over from Lembikisa cross’s in the 27th minute before Shankland was denied by Liam Scales’ brilliant goal-saving challenge.
Another big call went the way of Hearts in the 40th minute when – following a lengthy VAR review – they were awarded a penalty after the ball came down on to the arm of Tomoki Iwata as he rose amid a cluster of bodies to try and head the ball out of his box. Grant kept his cool to send Joe Hart the wrong way.
Hearts thought they had doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time when Shankland drilled home a low angled shot from eight yards out after being fed by a Forrest pass but the goal was eventually ruled out for offside following a lengthy VAR review.
Celtic sent on Kyogo Furuhashi in place of Bernardo for the start of the second half. But the Hoops found themselves two down in the 56th minute when Shankland swept home a clinical low strike from 15 yards out after team-mate Calem Nieuwenhof slipped while lining up a shot and inadvertently knocked the ball back into the striker’s path with the aid of a nick off Celtic left-back Greg Taylor.
The visitors were unable to summon a response and Hearts saw out victory in impressive fashion, sparking jubilant full-time scenes at Tynecastle.
