Celtic manager Neil Lennon has said he feels ‘sympathy’ for Hearts who now find themselves in the Scottish Championships after finishing bottom of the Premiership last season.

As quoted by the Scotsman, we all know how badly the voting situation turned out to be, so Lennon said he feels clubs had to do what was best to get football up and kicking again but admitted that the Jambos have an excellent squad who would be fit for the Premiership.

“Yeah, of course. I thought there may have been another way around things. But the clubs took the vote that it was the best way forward, to take the game forward, but yeah, I had sympathy for Hearts. I think they’re now good enough to come out of the Championship at the first attempt.

“They have an excellent manager [in Robbie Neilson] who has done it before with them. He knows the club and they play a good brand of football. They have recruited well with International and ex-international players.

“They have ex-Premier League players for this, and for me, the cup final is as tough a game as we could expect at this level. They have Steven Naismith, Andy Halliday and Oli Lee who has played for a Premier League club, and Liam Boyce, who is an international striker. And of course, they have Craig Gordon, who was an outstanding player here. He won many times and has experience of winning the competition as well as winning leagues.”

Looking at the Hearts squad, Lennon is right and they probably would be in with a shout of finishing in the top six, if they had stayed up this year.

Just because they are a Championship side doesn’t mean we can be complacent as they have some top players who can play and threaten us at any moment.

I do still think we will have more than enough to potentially bring home our 40th Scottish Cup at the weekend but we still have to be very careful and wary of what Hearts can do to us.