Martin O’Neill still believes that Hearts can challenge Celtic in the William Hill Premiership despite whipping the Men in Maroon 7-1 at Parkhead in the first meeting of the season between the clubs.
It was 5-1 at the break but the Celtic manager told BBC Sport Scotland that the Jambos have some really good players.
He added: “They’ll still be a big challenge to us and Rangers.”
The Celtic boss felt his men played really well and scored some “really great goals”. The Irishman also praised his defence.
Celtic have 24 points from nine games and lead the Ibrox side by four points and Hearts by eight, but O’Neill said that this is early in the season.
Wouter Vrancken told BBC Sport Scotland that the two set-plays early in the game, which cost two goals, “killed” their game and he added: “All of their goals were individual mistakes.”
He wants the players who made those mistakes to learn from them and the Belgian-born head coach said: “After tomorrow, it (the result) has to be gone because there is another game to come.
“We have to step up again and push and keep pushing.”
