Brendan Rodgers using Celtic Ibrox win for Hearts motivation as boss calls away ticket standardisation

Brendan Rodgers knows Celtic can produce big results with no fans away from home, so a reduced allocation at Tynecastle in no excuse.

Rodgers takes his team to the capital to face Hearts, who have slashed away allocations for everyone except HIbs this season. But having won 1-0 away to Rangers earlier in the campaign, the Irishman will expect his men to turn up in Gorgie, fresh from earning him the Scottish Premiership manager of the Month award.

But it won't be easy in Gorgie. Tynecastle can be a tough place to go, and having let a two goal lead slip against Hibs in the Edinburgh derby last time out, Naismith will want to repay fans with a win over the champions. And with Celtic only being allocated 571 tickets for the tie, it will be a miniscule following compared to what the visitors are used to.

But Rodgers admitted that whilst his team can't use no away fans as an excuse for playing poorly, he thinks the league should standardise some form of rules for both sets of supporters to enjoy the game.

The Celtic boss said ahead of the clash against Hearts: “Any team when you’re playing away, it’s always nice to have a fairly large group of your supporters there to give you that back, but if they’re not there then we can’t use that as an excuse.

"We’ve seen already with no supporters that we can get big results so we’ll be very much together and the 500-odd supporters there, we can give them a really good day when we’re there.

“Every club has every right to issue, at this moment in time, what it is they want to give away supporters. But until something is standardised, then Hearts are more than willing to do that. But hopefully we can standardise a sort of percentage for away supporters, and that allows all of the