How the Hearts players rated in Premier Sports Cup loss to Celtic
Robbie Neilson’s men fell to a 3-2 defeat at Parkhead as they exit the Premier Sports Cup and the club's long run without winning the League Cup continues.
Odsonne Edouard opened the scoring seconds after the Hearts boss tweaked the system before Stephen Welsh added a second from a corner.
Hearts spent long spells without the ball and struggled to pose much of an attacking threat. That improved after the break and Liam Boyce scored a penalty before Kyogo Furuhashi restored the two-goal lead. Aaron McEneff netted late on.
How did the players involved rate out of ten?
Player ratings scale - 10: One of the best performances you've seen. 9: Outstanding. 8: Very good. 7: Good. 6: Average. 5: Poor, 4: Very poor. 3: A terrible day at the office. 2: Abysmal. 1: One of the worst performances you've seen.
1. Craig Gordon - 8
The team’s man of the match. He kept the team in it for long periods as Celtic peppered the Hearts goal. Got down to shots really sharply, stood his ground when needed to and made himself big. Another big performance. Photo: Alan Harvey - SNS Group
2. Michael Smith - 5
One of the Irishman’s toughest games in a Hearts jersey up against Kyogo Furuhashi. The Japanese international was a constant threat with his pace and movement. Constantly looked to run from out to in. Smith had trouble coping. Photo: Ross MacDonald - SNS Group
3. John Souttar - 6
A busy day for the centre-back. Had to cover plenty of times and made some key interventions. Photo: Ross MacDonald - SNS Group
4. Craig Halkett - 5
At times he was part of a defence which was simply being overrun. Stood up to the threat of Odsonne Edouard but at times Celtic’s quality got the better of him. Photo: Ross Parker - SNS Group