Cathro is not in the mood for a party

IN the unlikely event that Hearts throw a spanner into the previously invincible Celtic machine tomorrow afternoon, do not expect wild celebrations in the away technical area.

As pleased as Ian Cathro and his staff would be to win a game, the misery of this season will mitigate against anyone getting carried away.

Cathro, who has won just six of his 25 matches at the helm since replacing Robbie Neilson late last year, places little value on one-off, bit-part appearances on the big stage.

‘For me, it would be nice to win the game,’ said the 30-year-old Hearts boss. ‘But there is nothing that can happen that will involve me feeling great at full-time on Sunday. It will be further down the line before any of us feel great.

‘It’s a nice game to look forward to. A difficult day with everything around it but we won’t get much at the end of it. We might feel better (if we win). But nobody will feel great.

‘The chance to end the unbeaten run will be an incentive for some players.

‘Nobody likes being an uninvited guest at someone else’s party, which is what these days can often be, so the dislike for that can also be a motivation.’

There is a definite air of hurriedness about all at Hearts, as if they cannot wait for this season to end.

Some would be glad if tomorrow was Cathro’s last game in charge.

Others are at least willing to see how he gets on once director of football Craig Levein has helped overhaul the squad for a fresh crack at a new campaign.

Regardless of this desire to move on, draw a line under the recent past and generally file 2016-17 under ‘F’ for forget, this closing fixture does matter.

A battering by a Celtic side in imperious form, even allowing for absences ahead of their Treble-completing Scottish Cup final mission against Aberdeen, would impact on confidence already at rock bottom down Gorgie way.

Cathro (below), who intended to spend yesterday afternoon watching footage of Brendan Rodgers’ men dismantling Partick Thistle, said: ‘The only thing we’ll try not to do is entirely focus on stopping Celtic.

‘But there is a vast difference just now and you can’t hide from that.

‘They are an excellent team. They can adapt, they can do different things and they can do it very quickly.

‘The first bit is stopping them but also with the idea and attitude to want to go and be able to compete against them.

‘They are not often asked to defend for prolonged periods because they do so well in possession.

‘It’s about us being able to hit attacks more often and be aggressive in our attitude to try and do that.

‘Talking about that is a helluva lot easier than doing it. But it has to be our attitude to the game.

‘We had good chances to score goals when we last played them (the 5-0 defeat at Tynecastle last month) but we didn’t. Then Scott Sinclair had two touches and broke our net. ‘For us to have a chance to do what we want to do, we need to be really

efficient.’