It was, in every sense, men against boys. A day of utter humiliation and prolonged ignominy for Hearts. A sharp reminder that, in Scotland at least, Celtic operate in a league of their own.

The Champions League has posed questions of the quality and firepower available to Celtic. But here was the response. Celtic were 5-0 up at half-time. They couldn’t stop scoring. On a day of invention and one-sided dominance, Neil Lennon’s team were relentless, reacting to a grave European setback against AC Milan by playing their best football of the season.

‘It was utopia,’ enthused the manager afterwards. ‘As good as it gets. There’s a few people think we are on the way down – and then we react like that. We showed how good a team we are.’

Celtic were excellent and Hearts embarrassed. For these young Tynecastle players, the trauma of what happened will take time to abate. This was their worst home defeat to Celtic in 123 years. Their heaviest loss at Tynecastle since the seven-goal defeat to arch rivals Hibs on New Years’ Day, 1973.

For this old club, these are desperate, testing times. A grim fight for existence both on and off the pitch. On Twitter, one wag described Hearts as a keeper, eight nursery school pupils, the bloke who sang Mary’s Prayer and the guy with the dragon tattoo.

The jibe looked less ridiculous with every goal. In every imaginable way, Hearts were dwarfed and diminished by bigger, stronger, older and more streetwise opponents. The matchday announcer called it best at half-time when he described the home team as ‘shellshocked’.

Tynecastle, so often a cauldron of seething resentment and intimidation when Celtic visit, was deflated after half an hour. Already well short of a full house — with a crowd of just 10,636 — the old place grew a good deal emptier long before time up. Even before the interval, many Hearts fans had seen enough.

To focus entirely on the obvious woes of Hearts would be to do Celtic a disservice. They scored outstanding goals here. Oddly, not one came from an out-and-out centre- forward.

Amid talk of their competitive season ending if they had lost here, the prospect diminished completely after two-and-a-half minutes. Kris Commons scored a fine opening goal and was the catalyst for much of what followed, going on to claim a clinical hat-trick.

Commons latched on to a fine, flowing passing move involving Anthony Stokes and Joe Ledley to thrash a left-foot finish from an angle low into the net. It was a goal which set the tone for the 88 minutes to come. Celtic were ruthless. Hearts reduced to chasing green and white shadows.

The naivety and inexperience of the home team was evident for the second Commons goal in 20 minutes.

Scott Brown was fouled 20 yards from goal and, as the maroon defence switched off and relaxed, Charlie Mulgrew glanced up and saw Commons lurking in space. A quick thinking free-kick played the former Scotland man in on the right this time — but the result was the same. A lashed, vicious right-foot strike put Celtic two up.

Commons might have had his treble before half an hour had passed, a delicate flighted chip from the edge of the box tipped over the bar by Jamie MacDonald in the Hearts goal. It went to three after 32 minutes, another flowing passing move seeing Stokes selflessly resist the temptation to shoot and, instead, cleverly lay the ball off to Joe Ledley.

The Welsh midfielder looked more like himself here, thumping a low, deflected shot onto the post. That it ricocheted perfectly into the path of skipper Scott Brown for a simple finish — and the midfielder’s first goal — summed the day up.

The Celtic captain — a former native of the Hibs parish — could not resist the temptation to run to the Hearts fans to taunt them, earning a booking for his troubles. He needn’t have bothered. For the home support, there was plenty of pain still to come. Goals four and five came in the three minutes before the interval and were superb efforts.

Nir Biton picked out full-back Mikael Lustig on the right following a sweeping crossfield move and the Swede’s low, right-foot cross was turned into the net at close range by Ledley. Within a minute it was five, Lustig scoring himself with a magnificent 25-yard thumping shot. MacDonald managed a touch, but had no chance of keeping it out as the ball found the net off the crossbar.

Oddly, the Hearts keeper was largely blameless for all of the goals. Young Jamie Walker also earned pass marks for another fine performance, almost pulling one back before half-time when he ghosted through the Celtic rearguard and forced Fraser Forster into a fingertip save. It may have been the Celtic keeper’s first significant involvement of any meaningful description. It was certainly his last.

It required only a solitary glance at a youthful substitutes bench to see there was no way back for Hearts. Their coach Gary Locke could offer no solutions. This was now an exercise in damage limitation. An embarrassing charade. It was possible to feel acute sympathy for the home team over the painfully soft penalty which witnessed referee Willie Collum hand Celtic their sixth goal.

Hearts captain Danny Wilson was accused of handling a Commons lob in the box. Celtic supporters called for Forster to take the kick, yet the man of the match was never likely to pass up the chance of a hat-trick, thrashing the ball low into the bottom left-hand corner of MacDonald’s net for 6-0.

Painfully for Hearts, it wasn’t over yet. There were still 16 minutes remaining when Hearts suffered their first 7-0 home defeat in 40 years.

Brown slammed the final goal in with his left foot from 18 yards to almost ironic jeers from the Celtic support behind the goal. Most of the home support had already drifted off in search of a stiff tipple. Perhaps when they are old enough, the Hearts players will join them.

—Daily Mail