Liam Scales spoke for all his teammates and the entire Celtic support when he stated that Celtic owe Hearts one after the way the two previous matches against the current league leaders have panned out this season…
Liam Scales of Celtic. Photo David Young (IMAGO)
Hearts go into this afternoon’s match six points ahead of both Celtic and theRangers who take on Dundee this afternoon at Ibrox and like Celtic will have heavy legs after their Europa League match on Thursday evening. Celtic’s point in Bologna officially confirmed that theRangers were eliminated from the Europa League although they still have one fixture to fulfil away to our old friends Porto on Thursday night.
Celtic under Brendan Rodgers lost at Tynecastle in late October in what turned out to be Brendan Rodgers’ last match in charge. Then Wilfried Nancy also lost the match against Derek McInnes’ side at Celtic Park in early December, in the Frenchman’s first game in charge.
Today it’s all about Martin O’Neill making it third time lucky for Celtic this season against the Tynecastle pacesetters in what is really a last chance saloon for the four in a row Scottish Champions.
Liam Scales – St Mirren v Celtic, 23 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
“We owe them one. We weren’t at our best when we played Hearts both times,” Liam Scales explained as he spoke to the mainstream media ahead of today’s match. The Celtic Fan Media remains banned because we asked six of seven perfectly reasonable questions of the club back in early September after the transfer window had closed.
“We owe ourselves a good performance against them as well. That’s key,” Scales said as reported by Scottish Sun. “Will we see a different Celtic this time? I hope so. I have massive respect for how Hearts well have done this season so far.
“They have been really good and you have to give them that credit. We just want to approach it the same way we have been approaching the last few games. We want to be confident and we want to ultimately take three points.”
Hearts players celebrate as a dejected Liam Scales looks on. Hearts v Celtic, 26 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Scales doesn’t accept that a draw today would end Celtic’s title challenge and while that is clearly the case, a share of the points would mean that things are no longer in Celtic’s hands. Of course with three teams in the title race and Motherwell in particular looking very strong and capable of beating any team in the league, there will be more twists and turns to come in the title race.
But today for Celtic it’s essentially all about winning. You would expect theRangers to beat Dundee so if Celtic do prevail then it’s going to be a three points lead for Hearts with both Glasgow sides edging closer to their own objectives.
“We all know it’s a massive game,” Scales said. “We’re still in January. There’s a lot of football to be played. I don’t think it’s a title decider or anything like that, but it’s a massive game. We know what’s at stake.
Liam Scales on the ball as usual. Dundee v Celtic. 19 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
“We really are desperate to win this game, though we know leagues aren’t won in January. We want to approach it the same way as we usually do.
“We know how they play. We know their strengths and they’re a solid team. They have good players all over the park and threats in the forward areas. We just need to get things right in terms of preparation.
“We know it’s a massive game for them. We know they will want to be at their best as well. We can’t be anything less than our best.”
Hearts exited the Premier Sports Cup early on, losing a penalty shoot-out to eventual winners St Mirren. The Tynecastle side didn’t have European football to play this season after a disappointing relegation threatened campaign last time around.
Liam Scales at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Celtic go to Tynecastle today after playing with ten men in Italy on Thursday night against the Italian Cup holders Bologna, digging out a valuable point that keeps qualification in their own hands. Meanwhile Hearts players sat with their feet up watching the action on their television screens.
Being able to focus on the league has been the story of Hearts’ season so far and they have done that very effectively, in what until now has been an injury free campaign. That changes today with three key players missing including captain and talisman Lawrence Shankland out for eight weeks with a hamstring tear.
That happened in the Scottish Cup defeat to Falkirk at Tynecastle last weekend, which means that Hearts only have their league fixtures to think about, something that many of their supporters feel is a blessing in disguise.
Celtic FC line up during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD7 match between Bologna FC 1909 and Celtic FC at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara on January 22, 2026 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
On how Celtic recover for such a massive game after this type of exertions in Bologna, Scales said: “It’s more what you do off the pitch than anything. It’s about taking time to recover and sleep. A lot of players prefer playing.
“I prefer it personally than playing once a week because you’re training less and you want to just be playing games.
“Once you can take the two or three days to get good sleep, good recovery, it’s not actually much worse than playing once a week. I enjoy it.”
Hopefully the rest of the Celtic players today will feel exactly the same way. The crucial Hearts v Celtic match is live on Sky Sports with a 3pm kick-off. This Scottish Premiership game as usual will also be shown live on Celtic TV for subscribers based outside of Britain and Ireland.
It’s the last few days of the Half Price January sale at Celtic Star Books. Every book ordered is now just £10 and p&p is only charged on the first book at £4.50. So ordering three books will cost a total of £34.50 and given you a £30 saving. Order at celticstarbooks.com/shop
All Books Now Half Price in the Celtic Star Books January Sale…
These books now available at at HALF PRICE in our January sale – click on image to order…
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Please note that p&p is priced at £4.50 is only charged on ONE book so you can buy as many of our books as you like and the postage cost will remain the same. Why not expand your Celtic library today?
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