BRENDAN RODGERS says Celtic will hit the reset button after their historic 69-game domestic unbeaten run was brought crashing down at Tynecastle yesterday.

The SPFL Premiership champions were routed 4-0 by a rampant Hearts side who can now also claim to be the first Scottish side to stop the Glasgow club scoring under Rodgers' charge.

It is a run which stretched all the way back to May 11 2016, with the Northern Irishman hailing the sequence of results as 'amazing' and unlikely ever to be achieved again. However, he has now urged his players to harness the new feeling of defeat at the hands of a Scottish club, and use it drive them on when they start all over again at home to Partick Thistle on Wednesday night.

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“My feeling is of pride in the players," said Rodgers. "That’s the run of 69 games come to an end but it was a real historical achievement.

“I thanked them at the end.

“We made too many mistakes in the game to get anything out of it. We put a bit of risk in to the second half when we were 2-0 down, and went all out but we lost poor goals.

“The players gave their all to the end but the mistakes cost us.

“It’s the first domestic game where we haven’t scored but we could have played five games today and not scored.

“It was always going to happen. I’ve said many times, the players are only human and it was always going to happen. It’s never nice when it does.

“I wanted to pull the players together and tell them, Hearts were better than us today and we have to accept it.

“But what they have done is truly amazing. They need to use this feeling that we haven’t felt for 18 months as a lever moving forward.

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“Let’s learn and get better for it. We have to accept we are a bigger target now because of what we’ve done, but let’s go on and win our next game.

“There is no getting away from the number of games we have played. But we want to play those games.

“Over the last 18 months we have been able to galvanise and get through the fixtures but we weren't able to do that today.

“We’ll be fine. We’ll recover. It was great support from the supporters at the end. I think they recognise what we’ve achieved over the last 18 months.

“But we’ll now hit the reset button.”

Rodgers took to the field after the game to lead his team in a huddle in front of the travelling support who had stayed in their numbers to show their own appreciation despite the end results.

A few dozen of them left whenever Hearts' third hit the back of the net shortly after half-time, but Rodgers admitted he didn't give up hope.

"I still think at 3-0 there’s something in the game," he said.

"I said to the players at half-time at 2-0 ‘we’ve done this before. Accept we’re going to put some risk into it now.

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"You need to score quickly and we weren’t able to do that. The longer it goes on at three it becomes difficult. Today just wasn’t the day."

The result leaves Celtic just two points clear of Aberdeen but with a game in hand. When asked if this acts as a reminder that they are still in a title race, Rodgers said: "We’ve never ever said it’s been anything else. Last year I said, we’re not defending a title.

"We have to win it. We won it last year and will look to go on and win it this year.

"We have a game in hand midweek and we get a victory there it puts us five points again. Knowing we will be better in the second half of the season."