Celtic: Neil Lennon's monumental feat after one of greatest Scottish Cup finals

How fitting that a freakish year delivered a freakish cup final, a final that twisted throughout, lurching one way and then another in the quiet of Hampden.

It was nothing short of an epic. One of the greatest of all-time. Had fans been in the place, you'd have needed oxygen masks and stretchers to get them out of there such was the drama.

At 2-0, it looked like this day was almost done, but it wasn't. At 3-2, it looked like Hearts' were finally beaten, but they weren't. At 3-3 and into penalties, a new narrative came irresistibly into view. A Christmas fairytale.

Craig Gordon, a few weeks away from his 38th birthday, was about to deny his previous club in the shoot-out. Having created history at Celtic Park in the first and second treble-treble winning team, the goalkeeper was now set to stop the fourth. Having lost his place before leaving in the summer, he was back to haunt them. The ghost of Christmas present.

• Lennon thanks board after personal treble

• Neilson praises 'outstanding' Hearts

• Celtic beat Hearts on penalties to lift Scottish Cup

Gordon, trophy-laden and vastly experienced, for Hearts and Conor Hazard, a trophy-less rookie who'd had a difficult final, for Celtic. The story of the shoot-out was apparently written, but this was a final that struggled to follow the script. It was Hazard who emerged the hero. Fifteen years younger than his opposite number, Hazard cemented his place in the history books.

It was Celtic who took the trophy, their 12th in a row and the 21st of Neil Lennon's career as player and manager in Glasgow. It was Celtic who overcame their own desperate shortcomings and who put out the fire of a Hearts team stoked by the injustice of the summer.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson said they would play on that. He said they would use their enforced demotion from the Premiership as a motivational tool and they did. It took a while, but when Hearts started to play, this final went from a stroll to a classic.

For 45 minutes, it was all Celtic. A sumptuous opener from Ryan Christie and the cheekiest finish from the penalty spot from Odsonne Edouard. Like all at Celtic, the Frenchman has had a rough season. The criticism has flowed more freely than the goals, the doubts about his passion for the club aired regularly. With all of that swirling, and with so much riding on this final, there was a sense of awe when he dinked his penalty rather than blasting it hard and true.

From the Gaul came the gall. It was delightful. With Edouard seemingly in possession of his chutzpah again, you feared for Hearts. All of their plans looked to have gone out the window when Christie curled that pearler beyond Gordon's reach. All the fight they had in them looked to have evaporated when it became two.

Then, the first unexpected turn. Liam Boyce's header gave Hearts hope and gave Celtic the defensive heebee-jeebies. From in control, Celtic were under the cosh. From fluent to fretful in the relative blink of an eye.

Sense of a story in the air

At every Hearts corner down Celtic's end, there was aggro. Steven Naismith and Scott Brown were a drama unto themselves, Naismith trying to unsettle Hazard, Brown battling to protect him. Two gnarled veterans and a 22-year-old kid. That's how the equaliser came. At that corner just after the hour-mark, Naismith was standing behind Hazard with Brown attempting to shift the striker out of his goalkeeper's road.

When the ball was in the air, Naismith came round the front and reversed into Hazard. Illegal, probably. Effective, definitely. On the back foot, Hazard flailed and missed and Stephen Kingsley scored. The glory of the goal wouldn't have been possible had it not been for Naismith's expertise in the dark arts.

On we went into extra-time. Leigh Griffiths appeared in the 96th minute and there was a sense of a story in the air. A lousy year for the lesser-spotted striker looked to have turned on its head when he poked home in the 105th minute. Brown celebrated like a man who thought he'd finally buried the most stubborn opponent, every sinew on his face bulging, every ounce he had left going into the celebration that made it 3-2.

The captain was replaced within minutes. Exhausted and seizing up, he could do no more. From the stand, he watched Hearts land one more haymaker.

When Josh Ginnelly put ball and man into the back of Celtic's net, it was a genuine "wow!" moment. Wow! that they'd come back again. Wow! at the intensity of it. Wow! at the fact that all of these players, despite playing in front of nobody, were delivering a final that was gripping everybody.

To penalties they went and still the plot thickened. The player you'd have hung your hat on to score - Christie - had his kick saved by the emerging hero, Gordon. Now 3-2 down from the spot, it was the first time Celtic had been been behind.

'There'll be if-onlys, there'll be what-ifs' for Hearts

A team full of players with winners medals coming out their ears now turned to a goalkeeper who has enjoyed none of that success. There was nothing that Brown or Christie or Callum McGregor or other staples of their domestic domination could do now. The quadruple treble was in Hazard's hands - and Hazard delivered. He saved Kingsley's penalty to his right, he saved Craig Wighton's penalty to his left. He cleared the stage and Kristoffer Ajer did the rest.

No cup final in this run has been more stressful for them, no team has managed to push them to the wire as Hearts did. Neilson will have been as proud of his players as Lennon was of his, but there'll be regrets, there'll be if-onlys, there'll be what-ifs. The ultimate challenge for Hearts this season is to get the hell out of the Championship and back to the Premiership and there was loads to give Neilson comfort on that front.

Lennon looked and sounded like a man who'd spent the entire afternoon in a tumble dryer. Happy to have survived it but jaded by the experience. Twenty-one trophies in Celtic colours is a monumental feat. A treble-winner as player and manager is a historic thing. Leader of a quadruple-treble winning team is a landmark puts him in a pantheon and it's unlikely he'll have company in his lifetime.

There will be Celtic fans - possibly many - who will celebrate this moment but who will also argue that it changes nothing, that Lennon's main task this season was to win the 10-in-a-row and that he's failing in that and needs to be replaced. For those folk, it's the strangest type of glory. Another trophy but one that comes with a context.

Lennon will drive on, as he must. There's league games to be won and a pursuit of Rangers that needs the spark plugs applied. Given the abuse he's endured in recent times, he'll enjoy this victory as one of his sweetest, but the respite will be brief. That's the mad world he lives in, the mad world he revels in.

He has Ross County on Wednesday and Hamilton Academical on Saturday. Must-wins, the pair of them.

The trophies pile up, but so does the pressure. It's to his credit that he's still as hungry for the fight as he ever was.