Celtic players will 'go down in history', says Brendan Rodgers after record run finally ends
Sunday 17 December 2017 17:27, UK
Brendan Rodgers revealed he called an impromptu Celtic huddle after their 4-0 thrashing by Hearts, reminding his players they will "go down in history".
The Parkhead side, who broke their own 100-year-old British record when they made it 63 domestic games unbeaten against St Johnstone in November, saw a remarkable streak finally come to an end at 69 in surprising fashion.
Hearts raced into a deserved two-goal interval lead through 16-year-old midfielder Harry Cochrane and striker Kyle Lafferty, before a second-half double from attacker David Milinkovic - one from the penalty spot - put the finishing touches on a remarkable afternoon.
But Rodgers was keen to put his first defeat by a Scottish club as Celtic boss since joining the Hoops in 2016 into context and revealed he thanked his players for their achievement.
He said: "Firstly, congratulations to Hearts, they were the better team today and deserved to win the game. I have said over many months, if the players weren't human I would say they would never lose. It was always going to happen. It is not nice when it does.
"I wanted to pull the players together and let them be aware that they were better than us today and we have to accept that.
"What they have done is absolutely amazing but to use this feeling that they haven't felt for 18 months, use it as a lever moving forward and let's learn from it and be better for it.
"We are a bigger target because of what we have done, we accept that and now go and look to win our next game. My feeling is pride for the players. The run of 69 games comes to an end; a real historic achievement, remarkable.
"The players will go down in history because I am not sure it will be done again but certainly in our lifetimes it won't be done and the players can take pride in that. I thanked them for that at the end."
Rodgers admitted his players were off the pace defensively but urged them to "hit the reset button" and go again.
"We made too many mistakes in the game to get anything out of it," he said. "Defensively we struggled. Hearts played a direct game which is fine and we failed to cope with Lafferty in the first period.
"He gave our two centre halves problems and you have to defend well to win a game.
"It is in the past now. We have to hit the reset button."
It was Hearts' biggest victory over Celtic since a 5-0 win in 1895 and boss Craig Levein revealed drew inspiration from Belgian side Anderlecht, who found success at Celtic Park in their Champions League clash earlier in the month with a 1-0 win.
He said: "We based our game on the Anderlecht game - high-pressing, being brave at the back and going man-for-man at times.
"It was a difficult thing to do because if they cut you open you could be 3-0 down before you bat an eyelid. But the recovery runs from the players when they had gone to press and it didn't work, were the things that made all the difference today.
"It was pleasing. All credit to Celtic for going into a game which would have been their 70th match without defeat. It shows a huge level of commitment, effort and quality to be able to do that. But it was pleasing we managed to go toe-to-toe and come out on top."
