Toby Sibbick reveals the secret behind his standout display for Hearts against Celtic

The giant Englishman was a dominant figure in Sunday's 2-0 victory

Fear took hold in Gorgie when news of Frankie Kent's injury broke 48 hours before Hearts faced Celtic. The Englishman has been Hearts' most dominant defender all season and the prospect of taking on the Premiership champions minus his physicality was daunting. Toby Sibbick settled everyone's nerves with an imperious display on his return to the team.

Having played only twice from the start in 2024, Sibbick took his place on the right of Hearts' three-man defence to deliver a commanding performance in Sunday's 2-0 victory. His pace, anticipation, concentration and aggression helped stifle a Celtic attack which had lashed a total of 10 goals in the previous two matches against Motherwell and Dundee.

An early red card for Celtic winger Hyunjun Yang aided Hearts' cause as they went on to record a memorable 2-0 victory. Sibbick's controlled execution of his role was a key factor, easing the pre-match concern around Kent's absence and proving that the former Barnsley player can cope against the best teams in Scotland.

"Frankie is one of my closest friends here so it's sad and disappointing to see him get hurt. Hopefully he recovers quickly," said Sibbick in an exclusive Edinburgh News interview. "When I'm called upon, I just have to make sure I play to the best of my ability. Sometimes it's tough being out for so long with that match fitness and sharpness. You just have to keep working hard, keep believing in your ability and hope that comes through. I thought I had a decent game on Sunday.

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"The talk has been that we had been starting slowly. From the first whistle, we were at Celtic and being aggressive. Zander [Clark] made a big save from the [Adam Idah] penalty but I don't think they really made a clear-cut chance with 11 men on the pitch. Credit to the boys, we started well and carried it through. It was a thoroughly-deserved win."

It also offered further proof that Hearts are capable of matching the richer Glasgow clubs in one-off games. They beat Celtic in December and ran Rangers close at Ibrox last October, although last week's 5-0 destruction in Govan was a low point. "Yeah, exactly. It was a disappointing day against Rangers," admitted Sibbick. "It was a similar story on Sunday because we knew Celtic would start fast and it was how we dealt with that and tried to get the crowd on side. I think we did that. We took the game to them and didn't give them a minute's rest.

"That's what we want to aim for now. We are sitting third in the league and we want to bridge the gap between us and the top two and get as close to them as possible. Apart from the 5-0 loss against Rangers and the Celtic game at home, we have given them really good games in the other matches. We have taken them down to the wire.

"That's our next aim. We want to keep improving the squad, we've got a great squad now with a lot of competition for places. That keeps the drive and energy high in the team. We just want to get as close to the top two as possible and away from the pack below us."

Underpinning Sibbick's focus was a life-changing event in the last week. The 24-year-old became a parent for the first time when daughter Khalani was born. "I had a couple of days off training because my girlfriend was in labour. I've got to get home to her now and take over. It's a blessing welcoming a child into the world and I'm grateful," smiled the player.

The secret behind his standout showing against Celtic was a subtle change of sleeping arrangements with his partner. "We had a conversation on Saturday and I said: 'I'm going to have to sleep in the spare room,'" he laughed. "She was alone last night but we have a couple of days off now so I can do the night feeds. My girlfriend can get some rest. We have a good rota going.

"We named our daughter Khalani because it's just a name we liked. She didn't have a name for the first couple of days and we were out on a walk and my Mrs said: 'The sky looks nice.' She searched the meaning of that name and it means 'sky and water'. My mum is Ugandan and in her language, Swahili, it means 'beautiful', so we decided to go with that. I think it's a good match."