Rodgers pushes the reset button
the better team today. We failed to cope with their style, in the first half in particular. We didn’t defend well enough and made too many mistakes.
‘My feeling is of pride in the players. That’s the run of 69 games come to an end but it was a real historical achievement. I thanked them at the end.
‘We made too many mistakes in the game to get anything out of it. We put a bit of risk in to the second half when we were 2-0 down, and went all out but we lost poor goals.
‘The players gave their all to the end but the mistakes cost us.
‘It’s the first domestic game where we haven’t scored but we could have played five games today and not scored.
‘It was always going to happen. I’ve said many times, the players are only human and it was always going to happen. ‘It’s never nice when it does, though. Over the last 18 months we have been able to galvanise (ourselves) and get through all the fixtures but we weren’t able to do that today. ‘We’ll be fine. We’ll recover. It was great support from the supporters at the end. They recognise what we’ve achieved over the last 18 months. But we’ll now hit the reset button.’
Rodgers convened a player huddle on the Tynecastle pitch at time up, explaining later: ‘I wanted to pull the players together and tell them: “Hearts were better than us today and we have to accept it”.
‘But what they have done is truly amazing. They need to use this feeling that we haven’t felt for 18 months as a lever moving forward.
‘Let’s learn and get better for it. We have to accept we are a bigger target now because of what we’ve done, but let’s go on and win our next game.
‘There is no getting away from the number of games we have played. But we want to play those games.
‘When you come to places like Hearts, you need to be at your physical best. Physically, we weren’t today.
‘But like I say you have to give them credit — they did very, very well today.
‘The young boy in midfield Harry Cochrane is a very good player — he has good temperament for a 16-year-old.
‘To not just work hard, but play football. He has a good idea of the game.
‘So give them credit, they exploited our weakness today and were the better team.
‘We’ve had other games in the course of our 18-month run when we have coped with that — today we didn’t. We probably got what we deserved, I think.’
Aberdeen travel to Glasgow on Saturday sensing a window of opportunity after a number of unexpected Celtic slips.
Asked if a title race could break out, Rodgers, who congratulated Cochrane (left) on his display, insisted: ‘We’ve never ever said it’s been anything else.
‘Last year I said we’re not defending a title. We have to win it.
‘We won it last year and will look to go on and win it this year.
‘We have a game in hand midweek and a victory there puts us five points again, knowing we will be better in the second half of the season.’
BRENDAN RODGERS has urged Celtic to hit the reset button after their unbeaten record was buried by rampant Hearts.
Defensive calamity and a failure to score for the first time in 76 domestic games consigned the Parkhead side to their heaviest defeat to the Tynecastle club since 1895.
Still two points clear of second-placed Aberdeen in the Premiership with a game in hand, Rodgers claims his side will suffer no ill effects from a bruising defeat when they face Partick Thistle on Wednesday night.
A week after throwing away a two-goal lead against Hibs at Easter Road, the Celtic boss admits his team risk being drawn into a title race after another error-strewn display in the capital.
‘Firstly, congratulations to Hearts,’ said Rodgers. ‘They were