MANCHESTER CITY keeper Cieran Slicker revealed he grew up idolising Celtic star Joe Hart and will use him as inspiration after his misjudgement led to Scotland Under 21s losing to Denmark.

The 19-year-old was making only his second appearance for Scot Gemmill's side as they went down to an early goal at Tynecastle against top seeds Denmark in their second Euro 2023 qualifier.

Slicker - who is highly rated at Pep Guardiola's side and has already been on the bench for City's Champions League games this season - admits he should have done better as FC Midtjylland midfielder Gustav Isaksen's shot bounced up and deceived him to score the only goal of the game.

But the 19-year-old went onto make several excellent saves and believes he will learn from the experience, after studying Hoops keeper Hart, when he was at the Etihad.

He said: "Joe Hart was my hero growing up. When I was younger I was a ballboy at City too so I used to watch him up close.

"I tried picking up as much as I could.

"Over the past few years, I have spoken to him quite a lot. I was lucky enough to be able to be in a position to speak to him.

"Joe is a great guy and a great goalkeeper as well with a great career behind him.

"His advice to me was to try and play as many first team games as I could and to never give up.

"He told me to try and get first team exposure and that's what I am looking to do now.

"For me, playing for Scotland Under 21s is the equivalent of playing at first team level.

"And I have also played for City in the Football League Trophy against teams in English League One and Two and that exposure has been great for me.

"I'm just trying to get as much first team football under my belt as possible.

"I came on as a sub against Preston in a pre-season game and made my City debut. It was a great moment for me because I have been at the club since I was seven years old.

"It didn't end the way I wanted it to end because I got stretchered off with concussion, I got knocked out on the pitch!

"But just to get that experience and train with the first team was great.

"I can take a  lot from this experience. I think playing a team like Demark is the highest level you can get at our age group.

"For me, having that exposure is great and it was an honour to represent my country.

"Bringing it back to my cub, for my game, playing at Under 23s level, this gives me a great boost."

Slicker held his hands up about the loss of the early goal, but insists the result doesn't kill Scotland's qualification hopes.

He said: "It was a tough one. The ball went across one of our players and I lost it for a second. That was the annoying part.

"I still feel like I should have saved it. It's cost us, but I think I learned from it.

"As a team, I think there's a lot of positives to take from the game. The next two games at home are massive for us and if we can get as many points out of the six as we can then that would be good.

"It was all about forgetting about the goal for me. It was done when it went in and I couldn't have done anything about it after it went in.

"I thought I did all right for the rest of the game. But I know for a keeper it's all about that one moment.

"It is what it is and we move on."