LUSTIG WON’T WASTE TIME DWELLING ON GORGIE LOSS

THERE will come a time for Mikael Lustig to look back with pride on how Celtic rewrote the history books through their epic 69-match unbeaten domestic run. That moment is not now.

Left somewhat shell-shocked by the 4-0 defeat that brought a shuddering end to the Invincible era, Lustig refused to turn to those past glories to find consolation. No excuses were offered for the first domestic loss under Brendan Rodgers.

Instead, the Swedish international is simply itching to get back into action. Thankful that a congested festive fixture list brings another outing on Wednesday evening, Lustig’s sights are set solely on recapturing the winning feeling that had been a companion for so long.

Indeed, the 31-year-old’s own unbeaten domestic sequence is even longer than the 19 months Celtic had enjoyed collectively. Lustig sat out the 2-1 reverse against St Johnstone in May 2016, meaning his last loss to Scottish opposition occurred three months earlier against Aberdeen.

‘It’s a special feeling to go nearly two years without losing a game,’ he said. ‘The things we have done haven’t been done before and probably won’t be done again, so it’s unbelievable.

‘But, of course, this was a really sore one and all credit to the Hearts team, who really went for it.

‘The pride (of the unbeaten run) is not something we will look at over the next few days. My feeling right now is that I’m glad the game against Partick Thistle is coming on Wednesday and we can get back out on the pitch at Celtic Park and start winning again.

‘Now is not the time to look back and see what we have achieved, we have to look forward and start winning again.’

Lustig was the only one of Celtic’s back four whom Rodgers felt had performed in a positive manner at Tynecastle.

Inside and around him, individual errors from colleagues were central to the Hearts goals. Already two down at the break to 16-year-old Harry Cochrane and Kyle Lafferty efforts, a David Milinkovic double in the second half set the seal on an utterly extraordinary afternoon in Gorgie.

Remarkable stats popped up at every turn. The biggest Hearts win over Celtic in 122 years was also the first time in 76 domestic matches that the Parkhead side had failed to score.

‘I don’t know what went wrong — everything,’ lamented Lustig. ‘We lost 4-0. The pitch wasn’t the best but Hearts were the better team.

‘Early on, we had a couple of chances after breaking from midfield and I felt we had some space to play football. But after they scored the first goal we didn’t manage to create any chances and we didn’t win the duels.

‘Probably all of the goals come from individual mistakes and we absolutely need to be better on that one.

‘It’s the first time in 69 games we couldn’t score. And to concede four goals is never good news.’

And so all eyes will now be on how they respond. A home meeting with the Premiership’s bottom club appears a favourable opportunity this midweek, before Aberdeen visit Parkhead on Saturday. As it stands, Derek McInnes’ men are only two points behind Celtic at the top-flight summit.

Rodgers’ side will play no fewer than nine matches during December and looked leggy at Tynecastle.

‘I don’t want to blame the pitch too much and Hearts won it fairly but the way we want to play football is easier to do on a better pitch,’ responded Lustig.

‘Hearts were pressing us and I think and hope that if the pitch was a little bit better, we might have kept it better.’