Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has challenged his players to rest and then regroup after their unbeaten record was ended by Hearts on Sunday.

The Hoops broke their own 100-year-old British record when they went 63 domestic games unbeaten after overcoming St Johnstone in November. They eventually stretched that to 69 before Hearts recorded a sensational 4-0 win to stop Celtic’s momentum. Harry Cochrane, 16, opened the scoring, with Kyle Lafferty then adding a second.

David Milinkovic grabbed a brace to wrap up the win but Rodgers insists he is immensely proud of his troops. The former Liverpool coach admits Hearts were the better team but he now wants his squad to bounce back and start a new unbeaten run. He told reporters: “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. “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. “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. “It is in the past now. We have to hit the reset button.”

Celtic are next in action on Wednesday when they host Partick Thistle and are priced to win 4-0 at odds of 7.00.