Shaun Maloney will not get carried away with Celtic’s big win over Hearts

Shaun Maloney does not believe Celtic’s hammering of Hearts was a “seismic” moment in the season as he looks for more improvement.

The Hoops suffered a sobering 4-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica in Lisbon last Thursday and they responded in fine style on Sunday with a 7-1 win over the Gorgie side who took the title race to the last game of the season before losing out to Celtic at Parkhead.

The stunning victory was just a second win in six matches in all competitions for Martin O’Neill’s side and it took them four points clear of Rangers at the top of the William Hill Premiership.

With O’Neill taking care of a personal matter, Maloney took over media duties ahead of the visit of LaLiga outfit Celta Vigo in the Europa League on Thursday night, looking for the first win in the competition this season at the third time of asking.

“No, it didn’t feel that seismic, Hearts,” said the former Celtic attacker, who revealed defender Auston Trusty will miss out due to a private matter, with right-back Alistair Johnston and centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers in training and could be back for the weekend’s game against Hibernian. Meanwhile, striker Callum Osmand has shrugged off a hamstring issue.

“I know it was a really good performance. Some of the attacking stuff was really good.

“But it doesn’t feel like sort of big moment.

“We’ve got a fair bit to work on and continue to work on so it didn’t feel like that for me.

“Maybe the players might have felt differently, but for us it was good, everyone was committed with and without the ball, so that was probably what we took from it as a staff, or coaches, anyway.”

Earlier in the month, Celtic’s ultras group, the Green Brigade, revealed they were withdrawing from the home cup ticket scheme and would not attend any further Europa League ties at Parkhead, in protest at the running of the club.

Maloney looked back to the closing games of last season and the finale against Hearts, when most of the fans in a full Celtic Park roared them on a comeback title win, as he hoped for a resolution.

He said: “To feel and see how the stadium was in those sort of last few weeks of the last season, when everyone was together, I think all of us, fans, staff, everyone, we were desperate to get that all the time.

“It’s really difficult to sort of comment too much on that, but if we could get to that place again then it would be amazing.

“I think we’re all desperate to get to a point that we were at in the last two or three weeks of last season.

“And because when the atmosphere and the stadium is like that, it’s a difficult place to come and play and it drives the players on.

“So it’s a tough time again and hopefully that can get resolved but it’ll be more senior people than me that will do that.”