Ronny Deila Annoyed by Result Against Hearts

Boss Ronny Deila was left 'very irritated' by Celtic's wastefulness in their goalless draw against Hearts at Parkhead.

The Hoops should have been out of sight by the interval following a one-sided first-half which saw midfielder James Forrest hit the woodwork amid a series of chances created and missed.

And indeed, had defender Efe Ambrose not sacrificed himself by being sent off in the third of three added minute for denying Sam Nicholson a clear goal scoring opportunity, the visitors might have grabbed an undeserved winner.

The result took the champions to within four points of leaders Aberdeen, who lost 2-1 at Inverness, but Deila said: 'I am very irritated. Our performance today was good. You can't create more than we did in the first-half. We kept them under pressure all the time and I'm sure we had 70 per cent possession. We created chances but we can talk about that all day long. It is about scoring goals and we didn't do that today.'

Deila admits that the bombardment of the Gorgie box was tailor made for a player like Carlton Cole who spent last week training at Lennoxtown.

The 31-year-old former West Ham striker has returned to London with a positive impression of the Parkhead club, according to the Norwegian.

Deila is not sure if a deal will be done but remains adamant that Cole is the type of striker required at the club.

He said 'You need someone who has different skills than the players we have and Carlton has that, so we will see what happens there. But that type of player is what we have been looking for. At the moment he is in London. Maybe he will come back again next week. I don't know for sure what is happening. He hasn't played football for a long time so it will take time for him to get going again. But he has been consistent in the Premier League for a long time and he has a lot of the qualities that we are looking for in matches like today. He was very positive with everything about Celtic. He has been to the games here and he sees opportunities to score a lot of goals here. We will keep on talking and see if there is going to be something or not.'

Deila revealed defender Jozo Simunovic, out again with a twisted ankle, is set to return for Thursday's Europa League clash with Fenerbahce at Celtic Park Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson praised Ambrose for taking one for the team in the final seconds, when he hauled down Nicholson to end a Gorgie breakaway.

He said: 'Credit to Ambrose, he was very professional in what he did. It was a good one for our young boys to see. You are at 0-0 in the 92nd minute, you make a bad touch, the boy goes through, you take man and ball if you can, if you can't do that you take the man and he did it and saved his team a point. Yes, he got a red card but it is shows the experience he has got.

He added 'I thought we rode our luck in the first half - we could have been 3-0 down - but you have to do that here.'