Midfielder Bruno Aguiar is confident Hearts will be challenging Celtic and Rangers for honours next season. On Saturday the Jambos earned a deserved point against the Champions Celtic.

"We deserved to win but again we've lost an early goal," Aguiar said.

"It was a terrible start - but the most important thing was the reaction shown by the team. This squad has great character and after Celtic's goal we played some fantastic football and dominated the match.

"We've lost a lot of early goals but I can't work out the reason for this. All I know is it seems to make us play better. We'll speak about it and try to stop it happening.

"I'm very happy with my goal and it felt great to see the ball hit the net.

"A draw with Celtic isn't so bad because they are top of the league but we still feel we should have won. We've taken points off Rangers and Celtic now and that shows we can challenge them at the top next season. It can happen for us.

"The Old Firm have lost a lot of points this season but maybe it was too early for us to challenge.

"We had a new coach in the summer and it's normal for there to be a lot of changes.

"Over the last five months though we've played really well. This year we didn't really have a chance to compete with Celtic and Rangers - but next season will be different."