Hearts midfielder Andy Halliday explains why he will never shy away from Celtic ahead of Scottish Cup tie

Andy Halliday is no shrinking violet so it is no great surprise that he is relishing the challenge of Saturday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final between Hearts and Celtic at Tynecastle Park.

The former Rangers midfielder is in his third season with the Edinburgh club and acknowledged that Celtic are viewed as strong favourites ahead of this weekend’s tie.

He was withdrawn with a minor knock during the second half of Wednesday's Premiership meeting between the clubs, which Celtic won 3-1. However, it will not prevent him competing this weekend either as a starter or substitute.

“I’m fine, yeah. I was more than willing to continue,” he said. “I don’t know, you’d need to ask the gaffer. I think he was maybe just taking no risk going into the game at the weekend. A couple of boys were maybe running on empty a bit because some of the guys who started hadn’t had a lot of game time. I’ll be making sure I’m ready to go on Saturday if I’m picked.

“We’ve lost 1-0, 3-2, 4-3 against Celtic in the last couple of seasons, so it has been tight. We are under no illusions, though. They are a good side but I think we have shown we are a good side as well. We need to be at our best again to get through to the next round of the Scottish Cup.

“It might sound silly because you know it’s a game where, at times, you will have your backs against the wall. These have always been the games I have looked forward to most and I’ve had some bad results in them. I will never shy away from the challenge of going up against a good side like Celtic.

“Wednesday was no different. I thought our players had the same mentality and approached it correctly and that’s why we put in the performance we did. We still walked away disappointed because we wanted to pick up more points in the league campaign. We had only lost twice in the league since the World Cup break prior to Wednesday.”

Hearts took the lead through Josh Ginnelly’s early header but Daizen Maeda’s equaliser preceded subsequent goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and substitute Sead Haksabanovic. Manager Robbie Neilson and his players felt they delivered an assured display overall in Glasgow which sets them up for the cup quarter-final in their own surroundings.

Hearts midfielder Andy Halliday played as a left wing-back against Celtic on Wednesday.

“If we take the composure we should at Celtic Park on Wednesday into the game at the weekend, I think we will be fine,” said Halliday. “Our games against Celtic in the last couple of years have been tight, especially at Tynecastle. We have always taken the game to them. We will have our fans behind us and it will be a big crowd again so we are going to try and take the game to them from the first whistle.

“I thought we did that in the fixture last October when we lost 4-3. For a neutral, it’s probably the most exciting game there has been this season. Just two good teams going at it, trying to attack and score goals. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong end of the result that day.”