Neilson is going the distance

AS SOON as the interview is done, Robbie Neilson is planning to head back to the gym to lift some weights and build some bulk. Shoulder to shoulder with any striker, he wants to make sure he will be able to hold his ground. It shouldn't be a worry. Up against some heavyweight opposition, he has spent this season successfully ensuring he isn't muscled out of the Hearts team.

It is a fight he has had to square up to before but in the past it was the fans he had to win over. This season it was new managerial faces and an owner who insists he doesn't pick the team but certainly makes sure his opinions are heard.

From the outset there has been talk of bringing in a new right-back. But while plenty were sought, some even bought and others given a try-out, the man in possession remains Neilson. One of the most omnipresent fixtures in a team that has surpassed all expectations in giving the Old Firm a run for their money, he has started every league game bar one. That day, the latest acquisition, Slovakian international Martin Petras, denied him a starting berth. But not for long and by the 57th minute, Neilson was reinstated in his usual full-back slot.

Given that this is a player who Craig Levein farmed out to Queen of the South in 2002/03 to rebuild confidence levels which were being steadily eroded game-by-game thanks to a feverish home support less than taken by his contributions, the fact he is handling the latest pressures so well is slightly surprising.

Gone is the nervous boy and in his place is a self-assured young man.

"I think I have matured a lot since those days. Yeah, it wasn't easy sometimes and I did get a bit down but when I came back to Hearts something in my attitude had changed. I sometimes still hear the shouts but on the whole the fans seem happy enough this year. It helps that we are winning!"

Helps everybody. He now has the self-belief garnered from knowing he is in a team challenging for a Champions League place and the Scottish Cup and he is there on merit. In the past the common perception was that as soon as an alternative arrived, the player some considered the weak link in a miserly rearguard packed with Scotland internationals and a European Championship winning Greek would be warming the bench. "You can't force people to like you but now I just get on and do my own job and hopefully people come around in their own time."

Many already have. Neilson admits that the one element of his game that could frustrate in the past was his inconsistency. But now he thinks he has that nailed and with more targets attacking the opposition box he is more willing to gallop time and time again up and down the flank, to skelp crosses in for them.

"It makes a difference when there are so many quality players in the team. You trust them more. You know that if you make the run then it's not going to be a waste of time, someone will be in the box to get on the end of the cross. Or they will read your run and play the ball into your path. That makes a big difference psychologically. I'm still young, I'm only 25, so I still feel fit and able to make those runs but, mentally, it does get tiring if you are doing that all match and it's all for nothing.

"That's not the case this season. I feel like I could make those runs all game."

A player who has sussed that it is just as important to win the mental battle as the physical tussle, he knows how important this afternoon's match against second-place challengers Rangers will be. Lose and Hearts will gift Rangers a huge lift. But suggest that and Neilson simply looks weary.

"We're not planning on losing," he states matter of factly. "It's not a case of going out there and settling for a draw or worrying about defeat. We are at home and we are going out to win. Why wouldn't we.

"There is such a stigma attached to the Old Firm. People think that just because they are Rangers and Celtic they are better than everyone else but I don't think players think like that any more. We know they are beatable."

Several teams have proved that this term in one-off encounters but over the course of a season, only one team have managed to upset the pecking order. Rangers may be pegging back the gap but Hearts remain second and Neilson insists no-one is looking over their shoulder worried by the sudden breaths on the back of their neck.

"George Burley told us at the beginning of the season that the players we have here are as good as the players at the Old Firm. They have some quality players but so do we. There is no need for us to fear them. Look at it objectively. Just look at the players we have here. We have a squad of internationals, a European Championships winner, players with Champions League experience and players who have a lot of ability. So, although we always give the opposition respect, we don't fear anyone in this league."

Looking back on his career, Neilson says there has been no one central influence, other than his parents, and that his on-going development is simply a byproduct of on-the-job training. "You learn all the time when you are playing first-team football and now, even in training, I am learning from the players we have here. In the past few years I have benefited from extended runs in the team and playing in Europe was an education as well."

For the fans as well as the player. For so long an unsung hero in a defence which could not remain so stingy were it crippled with real weakness, he never captured headlines and rarely gained a mention in post-match pub chat unless there was an error to be scorned at. But against Basle, he surprised a few people. Not least himself. Netting his first goal for the club, he chose the Swiss ground as the venue to send a screamer of an effort into the net and secure the win. An unlikely victory. And even more unlikely hero.

But don't expect Neilson to bore you with reruns or talk-throughs. "In the end it didn't count for anything." He says, serving up the reminder that the club still failed to progress from the group stages despite that result.

Poor league form last season deprived them of European football this term. Next term, if Rangers can be kept at bay, it's Champions League football that beckons.

Grounded and unexcitable, Neilson says he is taking nothing for granted. But he would love to appear on that stage. "I watch the Champions League games on TV and I watched Rangers this year and they did very well, but if that's what they are capable of then we have to believe we would at least have a chance of doing something similar," he says, with a certain amount of logic given their own superior domestic standing and the fact that they too have players in their team who have already been there, done that.

"But I don't like looking too far ahead," he adds. "We just need to concentrate on the rest of this season. We have a run of tough games coming up. There's Rangers, then Falkirk who gave us a hard game there earlier this season. Then it's the cup semi-final, then it's Celtic. We need to focus on them and then see where we are at the split. But it's still a fight and I don't think it will matter who wins on Sunday, we will still have another game against Rangers and there are still plenty of points for both teams to win or lose."

A former Rangers Boys Club pupil, he is however a Hearts man these days. He was on the groundstaff when the 1998 team won the Scottish Cup and wants a bit of that for himself this season. What he isn't too fussed about is a testimonial. In his tenth year at the club, he laughs at the suggestion. "Maybe in a few years!" Which suggests he still expects to be around in a few years.

"I know I have to work hard to stay in this team. You see all the foreign boys coming in and they stay behind after training to do some of their own gym work and you follow their example. There are a lot of good professionals I can learn from here and I want to stay here and do that."

His current contract ties him to the club for a further three seasons, giving him plenty of time to earn the medals he craves and the credit he deserves. If those dreams are realised, the fans who once ripped his self-belief to shreds may be happy to pack out the ground for his testimonial.

Taken from the Scotsman