Celtic’s dismal Dens defeat makes Hearts’ eyes light up

Dundee’s historic home victory over stuttering champions delivers big boost to Mcinnes’ league leaders ahead of Sunday’s Tynecastle showdown

20 Oct 2025 - The Scotsman

Matthew Elder at Dens Park

It had been 37 long years since Dundee last beat Celtic at home and – after this history-making 2-0 victory – that might not be the only long-standing Scottish football record that tumbles this season.

Not since Aberdeen in 1985 has a team outside the Old Firm lifted the top flight title but the eyes of Derek Mcinnes will have been lighting up as events unfolded at Dens Park yesterday. His high-flying Hearts side – confidence soaring after an impressive 3-0 win at Kilmarnock on Saturday – will host the stuttering champions at Tynecastle next weekend knowing that a victory will send them eight points clear at the top of the table. While it is still early in the season, it feels like there may never be a better chance for a seismic changing of the guard within Scottish football than now.

While it was 444 months since a Tommy Coyne goal last toppled Celtic at Dens Park, it was only nine months ago that Celtic were going toe-to-toe with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in the knock-out stage soft he champions League. The drop off has been remarkable and while much of the fans' anger has been aimed at the board over perceived failings in the transfer market, brendan Rodgers and his players were subjected to boos on the fulltime whistle with a tennis ball even thrown in the manager’s direction as he walked towards the tunnel.

Rodgers has escaped much of the scrutiny over a poor start to the season by Celtic’s standards but any notion of a free pass was revoked here as a Dundee side that sat joint bottom of the table and lost 4-0 to Aberdeen in their previous outing proved too good for his far more expensively-assembled side. a word, though, for steven Pressley. He was not a popular appointment among Dundee fans this summer but he has now managed what no other Dark Blues boss has since Dave Smith in September 1988 by beating Celtic at home.

It was a victory that Pressley and his players fully merited with a performance that asked questions of the visitors right from the get-go. It was just a shame that more Dundee fans were not present to witness such a momentous occasion. The number of empty seats in the home end spoke of the lack of faith shown in the current side – but this result may go a long way towards convincing the doubters to return. Celtic had scored 24 goals after eight league matches last season. This time round, the tally is less than half that. But while Celtic have problems in the final third, they are also conceding poor goals.

The concentration of the Celtic players may have been affected by having to clear dozens of balls from their penalty area thrown on by their own supporters in the immediate aftermath of kick-off in the latest act of protest against the board. Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel even appeared to plead with the fans to stop as the projectiles continued to rain down while players and staff attempted to clear the goal mouth.

Celtic minds certainly appeared elsewhere in the opening exchanges as Dundee came close to opening the scoring on seven minutes when a tea sing ball across goal from the impressive Cameron Congreve was dummied by Simon Murray, leaving Joe Westley with a clear sight of goal but the young English ma nm is connected and the chance was gone.

It had been a slow start from Celtic but Dundee goalkeeper Joe Mccracken was fortunate when he left a Kelechi Iheanacho strike assuming it was going wide, only for his heart to skip a beat when it struck the outside of the post.

Dundee were still causing problems, particularly down the left side of the celtic defence, and when another dangerous low ball from Congreve was hacked behind, he took the corner himself and planted it straight onto the head of the unmarked Clark Robertson to head home.

The jo lt woke celtic from their slumberous start with Kieran Tierney blasting a presentable chance wide before Hyunjun Yang sent another opening high over the bar. While Celtic set up camp in the Dundee half, they appeared vulnerable to the Dundeecounter-attackandsoit proved in first-half injury-time as the hosts grabbed a second.

Congreve again led the charge up the pitch, turning Liam Scales inside-out before picking out Westley in the middle. The striker’s attempt was going wide before it was deflected into the net by the hapless Cameron Carter-vickers for an own goal.

Rodgers responded at the break with a double substitution and a change of shape, removing the ineffective righthand side of Anthony Ralston and Yang and replacing them with James Forrest and Johnny Kenny, the latter moving up front with Iheanacho as Celtic went three at the back.

However, the inability to create chances continued to hamper Celtic and it was Dundee who almost grabbed a third when substitute Ashley Hay, who had replaced a limping

Murray, headed inches wide from a long throw.

It wasn’t until another double substitution on 64 minutes – with Luke Mccowan and Michel-ange Balikwisha brought on – that Celtic started to put Dundee under sustained pressure.

Celtic appeared to have been handed a lifeline on 72 minutes when referee Matthew Macdermind awarded a spot-kick for a handball against Paul Digby. The defender’s arms were raised as he raced out to block a Reo Hatate effort from pointblank range and well-placed Macdermid had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Fortunately for him and for Dundee, the VAR monitor showed that the ball had struck Digby in the face and a travesty had been avoided.

Dundee defended for their lives in the closing stages and earned a bit of luck when ago al boundhat ate strike was deflected wide off the backside of Ryan Astley, who knew little about it.

When the board went up for five minutes added time Dundee were nearly there, although Mccracken made extra sure by getting fingertips to a Balikwisha effort that was bound for the top corner.

The full-time whistle brought dark clouds over Rodgers’ Celtic, but they may just be lifting over Pressley and Dundee.

Over in gorgie, they a wait next Sunday with bated breath...