Daniel Stendel encouraged by Hearts display against Celtic as he hails fans and insists Jambos deserved a goal against Hoops

Hearts head coach Daniel Stendel was encouraged by his team’s display against Celtic in his second game in charge after finding no positives last Saturday when his tenure began with a 1-0 home loss to St Johnstone.

Daniel Stendel praised his team's performance against Celtic

Hearts remain level on points with Hamilton at the bottom of the table, ahead of Saturday’s match between the pair in Lanarkshire, but Stendel is confident better times lie ahead despite the Jambos going down 2-0 to Neil Lennon's side.

“We wanted to change our performance tonight from the performance against St Johnstone on Saturday and I think we did it well,” said the German.

“After the first 20 minutes or so, it was hard for my team to accept going 1-0 down to the first shot at our goal.

“But when you make mistakes and you are playing against a team with Celtic’s quality, then this can happen.

“But the reaction in the second half, when we were not only defending, was good. We tried to play on the front foot but maybe lacked quality and luck to create big chances in the final third.

“My team deserved to score one goal tonight but Celtic deserved to win because they had more big chances.

“We gave all we could tonight with our mentality and our fight. It was a good feeling for me in my second home game that we had so much support from the stands.

“My team needed to change the situation and it was a good experience for us tonight.

“Everyone can see it was a step forward. We would like to step forward so much more than just a small step but there is a good feeling we can do it.

“The next big step is to win some points, then the confidence will come back. Hopefully some players will come back from injury as well and we can have a good future.”