Ronny Deila irritated after stubborn Hearts frustrate his Celtic side

Celtic manager Ronny Deila admitted he was 'irritated' after he saw a dogged Hearts side hold out for a point as it finished goalless at Celtic Park.

The Hoops had looked more likely to score before the break than after it, when they lost their edge and created fewer openings.

As such, they had to settle for a stalemate against a visiting side who were ending a run of three consecutive league defeats. 

Deila told Celtic's official website: "I think disappointed is the wrong word. I'm irritated because our performance today was good, and you can't create more than we did in the first half.

"I don't think they had a chance in the whole game, apart from maybe at the end when we got the red card, and that wasn't really a goal chance.

"We probably had about 70 per cent possession and created a lot of chances, but we could talk about that all day long. It's about scoring goals and we didn't do that today."

Deila admits the bombardment of the Hearts box without reward brought the name of Carlton Cole back into focus; the 31-year-old former West Ham striker spent five days training at Lennoxtown this week but Deila does not know if a deal is in the offing. 

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. 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 Efe Ambrose for taking one for the team in the final seconds, when he hauled down Sam Nicholson to end a Hearts 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 shows the experience he has got. I thought we rode our luck in the first half - we could have been 3-0 down - but you have to do that here."