THE festering animosity between Hearts and Celtic supporters has ensured a thundering atmosphere at the compact Tynecastle Park during this fixture in recent times.

In building a new £12 million main stand and increasing capacity to 20,000, the acoustics at Hearts’ redeveloped stadium have changed. In the first major game to be hosted in Gorgie since Hearts returned from their temporary residence at Murrayfield, Hearts manager Craig Levein is hoping his ears will be ringing due to the Tynecastle roar this afternoon.

The club’s supporters are still finding their voice following home matches against Partick Thistle, Hamilton, Motherwell and Dundee, the last two of which they won.

However, from his days as a player and first stint in the Hearts dugout, Levein knows the crowd can play their part in bridging the undisputed gulf in quality between the two sides.

“The good thing that I am really looking forward to on Sunday are the real effects of the new stand,” Levein said. “This is a place I have always associated with feeling good. As a player I always felt good coming here, just walking through the door I always felt that. Although anybody could come and take us on, we would always go toe to toe with them.

“For a wee while we have not been like ourselves and there has been lots of different reasons for that. We need to get back to that point where everybody talks about Tynecastle as a brilliant stadium. They might not enjoy a lot of success here but they say ‘it’s a brilliant stadium’.”

Hearts will need their fans’ uncond-itional backing today. They go into the game against the treble winners with influential first-team players Jamie Walker, Arnaud Djoum, John Souttar and Aaron Hughes all absent.

Hearts have also failed to win this fixture in the last 20 games, losing 18 of them, and with Celtic hoping to stretch their unbeaten domestic run to 70 games, the chances of the hosts causing an upset appear remote.

However, with Brendan Rodgers’ side having drawn two of their last four Premiership games, Levein’s desire to find a chink in their armour has been emboldened.

“If Celtic play at their absolute best they will win,” the former Scotland manager said. “But the fact is they won’t do that every week. It’s impossible.

“I would imagine Celtic have under performed recently and given other teams opportunities. I hope they under perform on Sunday. They are just that much better than everybody else.

“The hardest thing I believe in keeping it going week in, week out is that you can’t play your best for 60 odd games. It’s impossible. Even when the performances have dropped off they have been good enough to win. I put that down to the fact they have very good players and a good manager, and loads of money.”

The big injury list has left Levein considering handing 16-year-old midfielders Harry Cochrane and Anthony McDonald a prominent role in today’s showdown.

If this is the case, the more experienced Prince Buaben has no concerns going into battle with the talented teenagers by his side. Despite his tender age, Cochrane has earned rave reviews in his seven first-team appearances this term, while winger McDonald was named the man-of-the-match on his debut in Tuesday’s victory over Dundee.

Buaben played alongside the duo and 19-year-old winger Lewis Moore in midweek and says the youngsters are more than capable of holding their own against the Scottish champions.

“In training I know how they are,” Buaben said. “They like the ball and so when I give them the ball I know they can handle it. The gaffer knows what they are capable of. They need a chance otherwise how will they progress? I think they can go really far if they believe in themselves.

“Of course they can handle the Celtic game, they have to. If they want to become good players they have to prove they can do it against the best. If you don’t there is no point playing.

“Believe me the gaffer gives them a lot of confidence. Look at the way they played against Dundee, it was amazing.

“I was 19 when I made my debut for Dundee United but I think football has changed. It’s more tactical and lads like Harry are really good at that side of it.”

Buaben played under Levein for two-and-half years at Dundee United and says the demands he places on the team have not changed. The former Ajax trainee hopes those principles will stand Hearts in good stead as they bid to halt the Celtic juggernaut.

“The gaffer has always been the same,” he said. “He wants you to work hard. If you work hard for the team you will always play. He gives his players confidence and the thing I really like about him is that he really doesn’t care if you give the ball away. He wants you to try and if you give the ball away that’s OK. He wants you to work back but he is good for the players’ confidence.

“I’ve not tried to make him angry because I know there is an angry side to him. Every manger needs to have that so the players know where they stand. But he has been OK with the players so hopefully nobody makes him angry.”

A winning habit is returning to Hearts after back-to-back victories over Motherwell and Dundee brought a winless six-game run to an end.

That sequence coincided with the team’s return to the redeveloped Tynecastle but Buaben believes they can look forward with optimism.

“Don’t get me wrong, the confidence was always there but there was just something that wasn’t clicking. I have played football for 10 years and sometimes these things happen. Once you get going you can be flying. You can see in the past few games that we are a better team.

“Celtic coming here will help the crowd. They are a good team, you can’t take that away from them, but you never know in football maybe we can get a result.”