Admirable Neilson

It all started with a rejection. For three years, Neilson was involved with Rangers Boys’ Club and optimistic of turning professional at Ibrox. He still remembers the day when he was told he was unwanted. Of his group of would-be Rangers players only Bob Malcolm has lasted the course. “It was tough to take at the time, but within a few weeks I was at Hearts,” recalls Neilson of events in the autumn of 1996. “In the long run, it’s probably been better for me to have come here.

Rangers is a difficult place to get a game and with hindsight I’m glad I didn’t get the opportunity to sign with them.”

A decade on and Neilson is a first-team regular at right-back, albeit one who tends to suffer by comparison. Craig Gordon in goal, Takis Fyssas at left-back, Andy Webster and Steven Pressley as centre-halves, Neilson is perceived as the defence’s weak link by virtue of being fifth best, but that doesn’t make him a bad player. During the summer, it was rumoured George Burley, the then Hearts manager, would prioritise a right-back, but the one eventually brought in, Ibrahim Tall, wasn’t his choice and never played. Tall has not played under Graham Rix either, while the latest supposed Neilson replacement, Nerijus Barasa, has so far been used on the right of midfield instead.

How does Neilson feel when his right to still be here is questioned? “You do hear stuff like, ‘Hearts have only got Neilson at right-back’, but it doesn’t really bother me,” he replies. “It inspires you to work even harder to stay in the team. People don’t expect me to be playing every week, but I am. When I was younger and first got into the team I got a bit of abuse from the fans and that got to me a bit, I was aware of the negativity. But when I came back into the side later, I just let it go and now the fans are great with me.

“I’m over the stage where my head dropped with a bad pass. If my first touch of the game was a bad one, my head would go down and the next time it would be another bad pass. You never recover and go 90 minutes without hitting a decent pass. When you get older, you realise everyone makes bad passes. I’m more experienced now which comes from playing in a solid back four. I get the feeling, ‘I deserve to be here’, a bit more now; I’ve got more confidence in my own ability.”

Significant others have, too. Earlier this term, Neilson was made captain of the Scotland Future team against their Polish counterparts at Kilmarnock and received a positive namecheck from Walter Smith in the aftermath. Recognition is rare for Neilson, even requests to interview him are infrequent, at least going from the friendly banter put his way by Paul Hartley as he attempts to speak. “Oh, no, not you,” interjects Hartley. “Beat it,” offers Neilson in smiling response. “Who’s it for?” Hartley wants to know. When told The Sunday Times, the Scotland midfielder affects an exaggerated snooze. It is Neilson, though, who is living the dream.

Neilson’s Cowdenbeath debut came before his Hearts one, the first of two loan spells coming in the 1999-2000 season, but was to have lasting consequences, enabling him to establish an early working relationship with Craig Levein, then in charge at Central Park prior to later managing at Tynecastle. It was Levein who sent him on his second, to Queen of the South in August 2002, during an 18-month period when Neilson was starting to wonder if he might be on borrowed time at Hearts anyway. Incredibly, between September 29, 2001 and April 5, 2003 he didn’t feature in a single league game for Hearts.

“I’d lost my way and needed to get back into the swing of things because my confidence was low,” says Neilson, of his Queen of the South switch. “I realised when I went there that if I was going to make it as a Hearts player then I’d need to dedicate myself more to the game.” His error, he reflects, was mistaking first making the team with making it, full stop. “Stephane Mahe said to me once, ‘Your career is 15 years, it’s not 15 games’. The good players are the ones that do it every season. That’s why I think the pressure of new people coming in to challenge me for my position is good. Both managers this season have said to me, ‘If you play well, you won’t be left out’, and I haven’t been, but I still can’t say I’ve cemented a place. I’ve got to improve again to make sure I stay in. It’s when you think you’ve got it in the bag, that ’s when your performances can start to drop.” Neilson may not have it in the bag, but he does have a decent handle on things.

The only honour in Neilson’s career came, oddly enough, at Queen of the South with the winning of the Bell’s Cup. He was on the Hearts groundstaff in 1998 when the Scottish Cup was claimed but, though at the Parkhead game, was not a squad member. “We’ve a good chance of doing it again,” he says in reference to reclaiming the trophy, his point now stronger after yesterday’s 3-0 fourth-round victory over Aberdeen. “The focus is on the league and it’s actually good to be able to say that. Normally by January we’d be talking of finishing third at best, but now it’s first or second we’re after.”

Whether they will get either is another matter, there is the competing evidence of the 1-0 loss at Kilmarnock followed by the emphatic response that was the 4-1 Edinburgh derby trouncing of Hibs. Next up is Dundee United away on Tuesday. “A couple of seasons ago we’d have been content to have left Kilmarnock with a draw, this season we had the pressure of knowing we had to win. When you’re going for the title, that’s the demand and it’s hard. Rangers and Celtic have been used to it for years and we haven’t. We were never going to produce 38 games of fantastic football, a drop in form was always going to happen at some point, but we need to address it.” Cue, possibly, for another players’ meeting, a constant ploy amid the managerial turmoil. “That’s what’s pulled us through, our squad mentality,” reveals Neilson at mention of Burley’s departure. “All the players get on well here, we don’t have any cliques like at some clubs.”

Neilson has become accustomed to change at Hearts, but doesn’t want a change from it. Hearts have brought in a team of new players during January, but Neilson is still in the XI that matters. His extended deal indicates Rix values him as much as his expensive recruits. The club has moved forward fast in the past year, but Neilson has stayed the pace with it. “It’s really rocketed here,” he adds with a grin, “but I’m hanging in for the ride. It ’s full speed ahead, but I want to be here for a really long time.”

He already has been, but you know what he means. Ten years in and yet this could still really be the start of something.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk