Hearts' Neilson right back in the thick of it

BARRY ANDERSON
ROBBIE NEILSON travelled to his native Paisley expecting to spend a tranquil afternoon in the Love Street stand.
Then came promotion of sorts on to the substitutes' bench and, before long, he'd become a central figure in a gutsy Hearts performance which produced three valuable points.

Quite a day for someone who had gone six months without first-team football.

Stomach and ankle injuries rendered Neilson unavailable since last April, ensuring he missed Csaba Laszlo's initiation at Tynecastle and had to watch first Jason Thomson then Eggert Jonsson deputise in his position.

His return to first-team level was supposed to be gentle. The player himself did not even expect to remove his tracksuit at Love Street, but injuries and suspensions dictated otherwise and prompted Laszlo to sit him on the bench.

When Saulius Mikoliunas suffered a knee injury just 25 minutes in, Neilson got the call for an unorthodox midfield role, and the adrenalin rush he had missed for months began to course through his veins once again.

"If I'm honest, I was probably looking at my first game being the reserves game against Hamilton Accies yesterday, that was my plan," said Neilson.

"But, obviously, we've had a few problems with players being out injured so the manager spoke to me and I said I was more than happy to be involved.

"I thought I would probably spend most of the game on the bench but, in the end, Saul took a sore one and I had to come on. That's your job and you have to be there when the manager needs you. I feel good now I have come through it and I'm just looking forward to the next one now.

"I was obviously a bit tired because I had only really trained for four or five days with the rest of the boys before the game but, to be fair, I have worked hard over the last few weeks with Rob Marshall the club physio and in pre-season, so I feel good.

"It's been six months since my last competitive game, so it was a long time coming."

Neilson watched with interest as Laszlo sought to inspire his charges during the interval, just four minutes after Michael Stewart's dismissal for violent conduct.

It was the full-back's first opportunity to witness the manager in practice and he resumed play with a belief in the instructions given to him.

"It's great to get a win. I thought that, after we had a man sent off, it was always going to be difficult but we showed great character, we defended well and we stuck to the shape that the manager wants," he said.

"We spoke about it at half-time and he was quite decisive about what he wanted, two banks of four in a 4-4-1 and he had a few plans for various situations.

"That's the first time that I have really had any dealings with the manager in a match situation and I thought he was really good, I was impressed.

"He is very good tactically and told every one of us what he expected from us positionally and what to do if certain things happened.

"When we had ten men the manager wanted us to be 4-4-1 and then 4-1-4 at other points because we knew that we were going to get a lot of the ball.

"We've got a lot of pace in the side as well with Andrew Driver down the left and we've got Christian Nade up front so we knew that we would get chances."

Having enjoyed a 65-minute outing at the weekend, the natural progression for any player returning from injury is to crave more.

Hamilton visit Tynecastle tomorrow evening for a midweek SPL fixture that the defender is simply itching to be involved in.

He is pragmatic enough to realise that demanding that the right-back slot be returned him is not the way to achieve his goal. In any case, that would never be the down-to-earth Neilson's style.

"I'll put myself up for selection, there's no doubt about that," he continued.

"I know that I am just back and that I have got a wee bit to go in terms of match fitness but, if the manager wants me, then I will be there.

"It would be great to be involved tomorrow night again.

"My plan was to go to Love Street just to be part of the squad and then play in the reserve game against Hamilton and take it from there. But I got 65 minutes or so against St Mirren so I'm probably not looking to be playing for the reserves any more.

"I would love to be involved with the first-team on Wednesday but we will just have to wait and see how the rest of the boys are and, obviously, Saul will have to be looked at. He had a brace on his knee after the game so we've got to hope that it's nothing too serious and that he's just jarred it.

"I thought Jason (Thomson] did well on Saturday. He's been in the team before so he knows what it is all about. It is always difficult when you break into the team and you are just a young boy, you play a few games and then you are back out of the side again. People always make a big thing of it but you have got to remember that it happened with me as well. When you first break into the side you're generally not going to play for the next 150 games.

"You've got to take it gradually at that age, you are going to be in and out of the team. Jason is a great player, everyone at the club knows that and obviously the manager is well aware of it and every time he comes into the side he always does fantastically well for the team."

Such praise for a rival player in his position can't mask the fact that Neilson, in time, fully intends to re-establish himself as Hearts' first-choice right-back.

Taken from the Scotsman