Clark taking confidence boost from performance at Celtic

Hearts goalkeeper Zander Clark will take confidence from their Celtic Park performance into what he expects to be a completely different encounter with the Scottish champions on Saturday.

Hearts took an early lead at Parkhead on Wednesday and gave as good as they got for the first half before going down 3-1.

They now host Celtic in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals on Saturday and are set to welcome back the likes of Lawrence Shankland, Stephen Kingsley and Robert Snodgrass.

Clark said: “The performance for 75 to 80 minutes was top level.

“Listen, we’ve got to take confidence from the performance we put on at Parkhead.

“I don’t think there will be many teams that go there and play at that level against Celtic.

“We have to take the positives from it and while the end result is disappointing it’s a quick turnaround before we go again.

“We need to focus on what we did well in the game and how we defended for long spells of the game and take that into Saturday now.

“Some of the passages of play we had, coming from the back and getting at them, were top level.

“So we take the positives from how we played, how we defended for long spells of the game and use it to be confident.

“We’ve gone and given them a real test already, so at home on Saturday with the crowd right behind us it’s a chance to go and have a real go.

“It’s a massive stadium at Parkhead, but at Tynecastle the crowd are right on top of you. It will be packed to the rafters I imagine, so there will be a great atmosphere.

“It’s up to us as players to keep fans onside and keep them going because they will be a massive help for us. It will be a different game, but one we go into full of confidence.”