Hearts captain Stephen Kingsley has spoken about his side’s 7-1 hammering at Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon and also the 3-1 defeat at the home of the Champions back in May. You’ll enjoy this…
Callum Osmand of Celtic is congratulated by Camilo Duran of Celtic after they combine to scote their team’s fourth goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on October 18, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
While Celtic are in action in the Europa League this evening against Celta Vigo at Celtic Park, the Hearts team are in Turkey to face Mo Salah’s new team Trabzonspor this evening in the Conference League.
While Martin O’Neill side will be looking to take that momentum from the weekend into tonight’s must win contest against a decent La Liga outfit, Hearts are having to pick up the pieces and Mo Salah & Co will have noted the defensive weaknesses in a Hearts team that simply fell apart in Paradise – again.
“It was very raw after the Celtic game on Sunday,” the Hearts captain said, as reported by Daily Mail. “I think it was just embarrassment with how we lost the goals in the first half.
“We shot ourselves in the foot in terms of how we defended. Basically every single goal Celtic scored came from a mistake from us. It was a calamity of errors,” Kingsley said.
He added: “It’s hard to sum up the emotions after a game like that. I think it was naive, eh? I think after the second one goes in, there’s a point where you need to build yourself back into the game. But I just don’t think we did that. I don’t think we gave ourselves a chance to because of the mistakes that we made that were punished.
Callum Osmand of Celtic celebrates after scoring Celtic’s fourth goal during the Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on October 18, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“Fair play to Celtic, they were clinical. But very, very frustrating from our point of view. You can’t defend like that and expect to get a result.
“We’ve got major plaudits from a lot of people for how we’ve played recently. But when you take those plaudits, you need to take the criticism when it comes as well. It’s one of those results that, if you linger on it, then you can let it fester and seep into future performances. But we can’t have that. It’s up to myself as one of the more experienced players, and the other boys in the changing room that are a bit older.
Camilo Duran of Celtic reacts after a missed opportunity during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on October 18, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“There’s no one going to be pointing any fingers at one specific person or one specific mistake. I think we all need to take accountability for our own performances, our own mistakes. Have a look at ourselves and what we can do better and learn from it.
“We’ve got another really difficult game in Europe this week. We need to bounce back quickly and give the fans a performance to be proud of, because Sunday was far from that,”Kingsley noted.
Stephen Kingsley of course was part of the Hearts team that left Celtic Park early in May, still in their match kits as they made a hasty retreat back to Tynecastle without the Scottish Premiership trophy that remained at Paradise.
And the Hearts skipper admitted that the pain of losing 7-1 on Sunday to Celtic comes nowhere close to what he and his teammates experienced on that unforgettable afternoon at Celtic Park when late goals from Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand turned the battle for the title on its head and meant that Celtic and not Hearts would be Champions.
Daizen Maeda of Celtic reacts after scoring his team’s second goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on May 16, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“No, nothing will ever be worse than that,” Kingsley admitted. “I just feel that it’s very difficult to analyse in terms of what happened on Sunday.
Cameron Devlin of Heart of Midlothian reacts after conceding a third goal scored by Callum Osmand of Celtic (not pictured) during the Scottishl Premiership match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park on May 16, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“I think the number of mistakes that we made leading to goals is the biggest frustration now. But, yeah, as I’ve said, we’ve got another massive game on Thursday. We will dust ourselves down and hopefully this is just a blip in an otherwise successful season.”
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