Heart of Midlothian

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Andy Halliday was left perplexed by former side Hearts' approach as they suffered a mauling at the hands of Celtic on Sunday.

Many viewed the Parkhead club as vulnerable heading into the encounter, having suffered four defeats in their previous five matches.

However, it was the visitors from Gorgie who were exposed time and time again by Celtic's dynamic midfield and attack.

Wouter Vrancken's men were 5-1 down at half-time before shipping two more goals after the break, capping a humiliating afternoon with a 7-1 defeat.

Speaking on the BBC's Monday Night Club, Halliday said his former team were "laughably bad defensively".

"I thought Celtic going forward were absolutely scintillating, but Hearts were the masters of their own downfall," he added.

"For me, Vrancken's approach to going to Celtic Park against a team who everyone thinks are fragile... But in the league campaign over recent years, even though it seems there's been a regression, they are still the best team in the league on their day.

"I thought Vrancken and his Hearts team's approach was so naive. I was as shocked as anyone to see them take a man-for-man approach.

"If you look at the personnel, you're asking Stephen Kingsley, Jordi Altena and Jamie McCart to man-mark Camilo Duran, Callum Osmand and Haissem Hassan.

"A complete and utter mismatch in terms of athleticism and power. Celtic just outran them."

Greg Playfair
Fan writer

Three months ago, at a meet the manager event at Tynecastle, new head coach Wouter Vrancken spoke about the "organised chaos" his teams had become known for in Belgium.

What we witnessed at Celtic Park last Sunday, however, was simply disorganised chaos.

Ironically, Vrancken said at the time: "We want position switches and runs to push the [opposition] defence to make decisions. The more decisions they have to make, the more mistakes they will make."

Well, one side at Celtic Park certainly kept making mistakes and unfortunately, it was the men in maroon.

I genuinely cannot remember a worse first-half performance from Hearts. It was so bad that at times all you could do was laugh.

It is remarkable we have visited Celtic Park with far less talented squads and fared considerably better. Vrancken must take his share of responsibility too, because tactical adjustments were clearly needed.

Why we did not move to a three-man midfield at 2-0 - or even 3-0 - remains baffling. We needed to absorb the pressure, solidify the centre of the pitch and give the defence some protection.

The wider picture needs some balance. Across Vrancken's first 18 games, Hearts have recorded seven wins, five draws and six defeats - a win rate of 38.9%.

However, seven of those matches came in Europe, with the defeat by Celtic the eighth game against significantly stronger opposition.

Remove those fixtures and the domestic record reads seven victories, two defeats - away to Aberdeen and Falkirk - and a draw at Kilmarnock. That is a 70% win rate, including the excellent 3-1 victory at Hibs, with an average of 2.6 goals scored and 1.2 conceded per match.

The contrast is stark; across the European fixtures and the Celtic game, Hearts conceded 25 goals in eight matches and scored eight - four of those against Rapid Vienna. That's an average of 3.1 goals conceded in a game.

The concern is clear. Hearts look vulnerable away from home, particularly against opponents we are expected to lose to.

So what better fixture to follow Celtic than a Conference League trip to face Mo Salah's Trabzonspor?

I do not know a single Jambo expecting a positive result, but Hearts must be competitive for the full 90 minutes and, above all, avoid another capitulation.

Motherwell away on Sunday will be the real acid test. Much has been said about our away record in 2026, but this is exactly the kind of match we need if we are to begin silencing the critics.

The Steelmen arrive in poor form after five straight defeats, but we have seen this film before. Struggling Falkirk and Kilmarnock were also handed points by a generous Hearts team.

The ingredients remain for Hearts to have a successful season. We may not challenge for the title, but third place should remain the minimum ambition. A domestic cup win and respectable European campaign are also well within reach.

Questions are rightly being asked of Vrancken and Hearts after Celtic Park, but the response now matters more than the inquest.

Trabzonspor defender Stefan Savic believes his team can up the gears even more against Hearts after downing fierce rivals Besiktas on Monday. Mohamed Salah scored the second goal in the 2-0 win. (Daily Record), external

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Defender Stephen Kingsley is determined Hearts' "calamity of errors" at Celtic on Sunday does not have a lasting effect on the team.

Wouter Vrancken's team were dismantled by the Scottish Premiership champions and now face a difficult away game against Mohamed Salah's Trabzonspor in the Conference League.

The trip to Turkey on Thursday gives Hearts the chance to show they have learnt the lessons from the 7-1 mauling in Glasgow.

When asked about his emotions after the game, Kingsley said: "Embarrassment, with the first half in terms of the way we lost the goals. We shot ourselves in the foot countless times.

"Celtic were clinical, fair play to them, but I just felt like we played right into their hands. We gave them exactly what they wanted. Made too many mistakes. Two set-pieces to start off, it kills you straight away.

"It was just a calamity of errors. After that, every error we made seemed to be exposed. They were good at it. Obviously, they're a great counter-attacking team.

"That's what's most frustrating about it, that we played into their hands."

Kingsley captained Hearts on Sunday and says the emphasis is on him and the other experienced players in the squad to steady the ship.

"It's one of those results that if you linger on it, then you can let it fester and seep into future performances," the 32-year-old said.

"But we can't have that. It's up to myself as one of the more experienced players to make sure that we try to put this to bed and move on to the next game, because the next one's not going to get any easier."

We asked for your views after Hearts suffered a humiliating 7-1 Scottish Premiership defeat at Celtic.

Here's what some of you said:

Keith: Bad day at the office. One bad result will not define our season. We are still third in the league, have a League Cup semi-final coming up and have qualified for the Conference League. Individual mistakes cost us big time, and Celtic took full advantage. We will see what the reaction is from the players in the next few games. Hopefully, it will be positive.

Tim: If you're going to defend like a five-year-old boys' team, you're going to get punished. The manager has one way of playing and cannot adapt. It's like a rollercoaster, but this time it's an embarrassment. Haven't we learned anything from our previous big defeats in Europe? Playing like this, we will be lucky - very lucky - to finish third this year. Simply not good enough.

George: Very disappointing and a hard result to take, but I truly believe in our manager and his style of play. Seven steps back to eventually go 10 steps forward.

David: Hearts teams in the past have been criticised for going to Glasgow and not having a go, so it seems unfair to criticise them too much this time. You cannot allow for rank bad defending. Hopefully, we learn from it. And as for all these pundits who love to quote game stats, have a look at the stats for this game! They show what meaningless nonsense it is.

Matthew: I predicted a cricket score before the match, and I wasn't far off. We are so poor at the back that this battering was in the pipeline, and we have been lucky it hasn't happened yet. I fear this result might be the start of a bad run of results until we limp towards the transfer window.

Aimee: The manager talks about players learning from mistakes, but he's making more and more each week - will he also learn? That was the most insipid, pathetic defensive performance I've seen. Out with a whimper.

Celtic ominously moved four points clear in the Scottish Premiership after an astonishing goal spree humiliated last season's runners-up - and this term's putative title rivals - Hearts in Glasgow.

Read the full match report here

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Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken: "Really disappointing and also the way it happened. Two set plays killed our game at the start of the game. All of their goals even, when I go back, individual mistakes and then it's difficult to win a game.

"In the set play moments, you have to be on top of your toes, you have to be on front foot to attack the ball there. Against individual mistakes, you can't do too much actually.

"Only thing that cannot happen is that everybody starts doubting now in his own qualities. Also, when you are one of the guys that made a mistake, just learn from it.

"After tomorrow, it has to be gone because there's another game to come. We have to step up again and push and keep pushing."

Rangers (£132m) have the 23rd most valuable squad in British football behind the 20 Premier League clubs and Championship duo West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Celtic (£104m) at 28th, while Hearts (£21m) are 49th and Hibernian (£15m) two places below. (Transfermarkt, external)

Hearts centre-half MJ Kamson Kamara, the 20-year-old signed from Lincoln City this summer, says Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann is helping him through a transition to right-back while on loan. (Edinburgh Evening News, external)

Read Sunday's Scottish Gossip in full.

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Portuguese winger Jota returns to the Celtic squad after dropping out of the Europa League squad in midweek as he was not registered. Summer signing Landon Emenalo is fit after his rehabilitation at parent club Chelsea and could be added to the squad. Cameron Carter-Vickers (hamstring) is a doubt and Yang Hyun-jun and Alistair Johnston (hamstring) are set to remain sidelined.

Hearts will have Tomas Magnusson available after suspension, but Ageu (muscle), Craig Halkett (Achilles), Blair Spittal (shin) and Tom Renaud (ankle) are out.

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Hearts on Sunday meet Celtic in Glasgow for the first time since their dramatic title decider on the final day of last season.

While some may think Hearts are on a revenge mission, Tynecastle midfielder Oisin McEntee says that is not true, with plenty of new additions to the squad simply eager to prove themselves against the current champions.

It will be Hearts' first visit since the final day of last season, when late Celtic goals denied the Tynecastle side their first top-flight title in more than 60 years.

McEntee acknowledges the disappointment of that afternoon still lingers but believes a new-look Hearts squad can approach the occasion without being weighed down by the past.

"I'm really, really looking forward to it," he said. "It's going to be a massive game in a big stadium.

"A lot of those boys are new and I think nothing really fazes them. I don't think there'll be a lot of that in our heads and in our minds for the game - we just want to go and win.

"It's a new group and I feel like we have a different style of play, we have a new manager, it's all different, so I think that's all we can do, just focus on the game itself.

"Genuinely, I'm not lying, I don't think it will [be about revenge]. I think we'll just focus on the game at hand and we're all looking forward to it."

• Josh McPake has scored (3) or assisted (3) six of Hearts' last seven goals scored from open play in the Scottish Premiership.

• No player has more goal involvements (7 – 4 goals, 3 assists) or chances created both overall (21) and from open play (19) in the Scottish Premiership this season than Celtic's Benjamin Nygren.

• Heart of Midlothian have scored more goals from set-pieces (excl. penalties) than any side in the Scottish Premiership this season (6). Indeed, each of Hearts' last four league goals against Celtic have come from set plays (3x corner, 1x free-kick).

• Celtic lead the 2026-27 Scottish Premiership for total shots (165), while no side has faced fewer shots in the division this term than Hearts (76, level with Rangers).

• Hearts have only won two of their last 11 away league outings (D3 L6), failing to keep a single clean sheet in this period.

• Celtic have won 14 of their last 15 league games (L1), scoring 2+ goals in 11 of those. Since the start of April, no other side has won 10+ Scottish Premiership matches.

• Last season, Heart of Midlothian picked up seven points in four league games against Celtic (W2 D1 L1), the most by a side other than Rangers in a single campaign since Motherwell in 1999-00 (also 7), and Hearts' most since 1994-95 (8).

• Celtic have won 26 of their last 29 home league games against Hearts (D1 L2), although have lost two of their last six (W4).

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Ahead of Wouter Vrancken's first visit to Celtic Park, the Hearts head coach has warned his side not to "live in the past" following last season's final-day heartbreak.

This will be their first time going back to Celtic since that dramatic final-day defeat, but a lot has changed since then for Hearts, with a new manager at the helm and 12 new first-team signings.

Hearts currently sit third in the Scottish Premiership, but a win on Sunday could take them two points behind a struggling Celtic.

Vrancken knows the task ahead of him and insists that his side will only be focused on what is in front of them, and not dwelling on the past.

"I am convinced that the players will be [focused] on the game on Sunday and not in the past, you can't live in the past.

"You have to move forward and look forward, and you have to take on the next one.

"I am convinced and confident that it will be like that [from the players].

"I hope the fire is there every game we play, and not only because something happened in the past, you also don't look in the past too much because it is negative energy, and we need positive energy.

"This fire has to burn when you play every game, especially the top games, when you can make a result.

"We have to take all the positives [from Nordsjaelland draw] into what is coming.

"I look forward to every game we play, you live for the top games, you want to play the top games, that's why you are a top professional in sports, and you want to perform and get results at that level.

"We will work hard for it."

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Oisin McEntee says his Hearts side can take plenty of positives from their Conference League draw as they prepare to face league leaders Celtic.

Nicklas Rojkjaer's 86th-minute strike deflected off McCart to wrong-foot goalkeeper Beau Reus as Nordsjaelland cancelled out McEntee's opener late on at Tynecastle.

Despite the late heartbreak, which denied Hearts a win in their opening fixture of the competition this season, McEntee is adamant his side can compete at this level and must remain optimistic.

"There's definitely a sense of frustration," he said. "But there's a lot of positives to take from the game.

"You're playing in Europe against a very good side, there's definitely frustration, but we just have to look at the positives.

"We had a really good performance, we could have had a lot more goals tonight, they scored coming to the end, which happens in games.

"I think the way we play it, it's going to be hard to replicate it for the full 90 minutes, but I think a lot of the boys put in a shift and that's all you can ask."

There are another two European games to play in the next three weeks - Trabzonspor in Turkey next week and Thun in Switzerland in early November. Before all that, a trip to Celtic Park on Sunday.

McEntee wants his side to recognise that they have the ability to prove a tough test for anyone they face.

"I feel like we'll be a dangerous team for anyone to play against, we know that we're a confident, confident group and we just want to go and do our best in every single game," he said.

"You want to be playing in these games against the best players in Europe, so, we're excited."

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Hearts will view Sunday's visit to Celtic Park as "a great opportunity" to avenge last season's disappointment of losing the final game - and the Scottish title - to the reigning champions, former Tynecastle striker Connor Sammon has suggested.

Celtic ended a run of three defeats with a convincing win in Motherwell on Sunday, but they were brought back down to earth with Thursday's 4-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica.

Sammon points out that the Portuguese "are a top-class outfit" and nobody will be surprised at the result but has no doubt travelling to Lisbon will have an impact.

At the same time, Hearts were drawing 1-1 at home to Nordsjaelland in the Conference League and would "be disappointed" to have conceded a late equaliser.

"You think of the last time the two teams faced each other at Parkhead and the drama that happened on that occasion, so this is a good test of where Hearts are under Wouter Vrancken," Sammon suggested on the BBC Scottish Football Podcast.

"I think they're the top scorers in the league just now - attacking threats from Josh McPake, Calvin Miller, Claudo Braga, they've got goals throughout the team."

Sammon pointed out that, despite the win over Motherwell, there "is a real worry" among Celtic fans about the club's direction and there was uncertainty over whether Martin O'Neill would continue as manager after the international break.

"It's a real testing time for them just now and, without a doubt, if you're a Hearts player going into that game, you're thinking to yourself, you know, we've got a great opportunity here," he said, stressing Celtic's defensive fragility.

However, despite all that, Sammon is still predicting a 3-1 win for the hosts on Sunday.

Hearts fans, we asked for your views on your side's 1-1 Conference League draw with Nordsjaelland.

Here's a taste of what you had to say...

Campbell: Hearts had the chances to win this match, but to be fair a draw reflected the game pretty well.

Jim: The game was there for winning the last 15 mins, and at the start of the second half we looked lost in midfield, subs should have been on 10 mins from the end to help the midfield out

Chris: Gutted not to get the three points, but we watched them play football the second half and got punished for it.

The triple substitution at the end was needed five minutes before, as it was obvious they were pushing hard for a goal. Frustrating.

Steve: Chucking away three points to a deflected goal sums us up, we were not in it the second half at all. How they escaped a red card, I'll never know - not a situation we would have escaped, I can assure you.

Alison: Too many missed chances and a disjointed second half means we can't complain about not getting the three points, but it's infuriating that it's individual errors causing our own downfall.

Thought the referee started well and nose-dived as the game went on. Penalty and red card missed, with one-sided yellow cards didn't help in the slightest. Gutted.

Eric: Inexperience played its part in the final result, you could feel the nerves within the last 20 minutes, and we badly needed substitutions earlier - a real issue for the manager is the speed of making changes.

Another unfortunate goal to concede, and I just wish we could get a little bit of luck for once in Europe!

Christopher: I thought we were fantastic in the first half and passive in the second. The manager complained about the energy the subs brought - he made the changes 10 minutes too late.

It's done now. We didn't lose, and we now need to prepare for a trip over to Glasgow.

David: Disappointing not to see it through. I see Vrancken is bemoaning the lack of energy from the subs, but I think he left it a bit late for them to affect the game. By the time most came on, we had finally conceded. Some sensational forward play again... but we need a goalscorer.

Hearts suffered crushing late disappointment in the opening game of their Conference League campaign as Nordsjaelland snatched a point at Tynecastle.

Read the full match report here.

Have your say on the game here.