Looking forward

The Glasgow side come to Gorgie on Saturday in a 12.30pm kick-off, with the boys in maroon looking to get back to winning ways after a run of challenging matches both domestically and in Europe.
 
With the treatment room starting to thin, the manager hopes the added boon of no mid-week fixtures can aid Hearts in their preparation for Saturday’s cinch Premiership encounter against Ange Postecoglou’s team.
 
“We should have a couple back, which is great,” he told the press in his pre-match media conference. “We’re starting to slowly get there. The only one we’re sure on is Peter Haring; who’ll miss out owing to the according concussion protocols. It’s disappointing but we’re happy to get a few back.
 
“This is the first week we’ve had without a European game for a while which is helpful as it allows us to train and recover properly. We’ll get a few guys back soon and hopefully some more by the end of the month which’ll allow us to move forward.”
 
Celtic arrive in the capital off the back of a convincing 4-0 win over Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Fir Park. Postecoglou opted to rotate his Celtic squad for the cup clash, but the boss insists his team will prepare no matter which Celtic team starts at Tynecastle.
 
“There’s no doubt that Celtic have a very good starting eleven, but a good second eleven as well. You’ve got between eighteen and twenty international players,” he added. “They’ve got their Champions League game on Tuesday so, whether they rotate or not, our aim will be to try and match them and get the three points.
 
“The league, in my opinion, will be very tight this year. There’s a number of teams that will be around that fourth, fifth, and sixth spot so we need to make sure that we’re the ones at the top of that.”