Young Hearts

Levein considers throwing teenagers in against Celtic as injuries bite.

Celtic utility man Nir Bitton has had to adapt in order to survive at Parkhead. The Israel playmaker has been used more often as a central defender this season, but that’s nothing to the changes which have been made to the entire club since Brendan Rodgers replaced Ronny Deila in the summer of 2016.

Tomorrow the champions head to Tynecastle as Hearts become the latest team to attempt to end Celtic’s unbeaten domestic run, which was stretched to 69 games following Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Hamilton. Bitton and his team-mates derive great satisfaction from that sequence, but the 26-year-old is irked by the fact that their achievement has been either ignored or under-rated by pundits and punters alike.

“A lot of people take what we do in the Premiership for granted, but it wasn’t like that before Brendan came. It wasn’t easy,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter how many games we’ve gone unbeaten – he wants us to make it more and more and prove that we are the best team in Scotland.

“The gaffer insists all the time we must be ruthless and he is right. You saw last

Hearts youngster Anthony Mcdonald, 16, who made a big impact on his debut in the 2-0 win over Dundee in midweek, is put through his paces in training ahead of tomorrow’s Tynecastle clash with Celtic.