Celtic are light years ahead of Hearts but Robbie Neilson could do with a result against them - Ryan Stevenson

When my game was postponed at the weekend I was thinking every cloud has a silver lining. Glenafton’s clash with Cambuslang Rangers bit the dust due to a frozen pitch but I’d be able to get the feet up and watch a belter of a Scottish Cup tie instead between two of the best sides in the country.

So much for that idea. After about 40 seconds I was thinking, ‘Ah s***.’ I knew Hearts were up against it facing a Celtic side who are bang in form. But they way they went out with a whimper was just a huge anti-climax. They never even landed a glove on them.

Look, I get why people are looking at the result at the weekend and trying to get all deep and meaningful about the bigger picture in Scottish football. Sure, it doesn’t look great when the third best team in the country basically gets a pat on the tummy.

I understand folk looking at the points gap from the Old Firm to Hearts and the rest and all this chat about the league being more competitive. But that shouldn’t have been in the minds of the Hearts players on Saturday against Celtic – and they still should have been more competitive.

It was a one-off cup tie. We’ve seen countless shocks over the years and this season as well. I didn’t hear anyone talking about the gaps when Darvel papped out Aberdeen. This is Hearts and Tynecastle. They had to give the crowd something to go on to get into the game.

But the way they started meant the game was done before it even got underway. There was a telling comment from Callum McGregor afterwards about knowing how tough it is at Tynecastle and not wanting to let the crowd give the team energy.

They did exactly that – and Hearts did the complete opposite. Listen, I have been singing the praises of this Jambos team for much of the