Andy Halliday says he would never 'shy away' from facing Celtic despite Hearts' not conquering the Hoops this season.
The former Rangers star is no stranger to facing the Scottish champions but found himself on the receiving end of a defeat at Parkhead on Wednesday despite setting up the opening goal for attacker Josh Ginnelly. Ange Postecoglou's men ran out 3-1 winners in the end with goals from Daizen Maeda, Kyogo and Sead Haksabanovic sealing all three points.
Robbie Neilson's men face the Hoops again on Saturday but this time with home advantage in the Scottish Cup quarter-final, and Halliday insists personally he gets a boost when playing top opposition like Celtic. The midfielder believes his 'bad results' against the Glasgow giants can be turned around and that there are no concerns for his fitness after managing 70 minutes at Parkhead.
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He told the Edinburgh Evening News: “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.”
He added when quizzed on being taken off: “I’m fine, yeah. I was more than willing to continue. 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."
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