Robbie Neilson says alarm bells aren’t ringing following Hearts’ first defeat of the season to Dunfermline.
The Pars turned in a superb performance to beat the Jambos 2-1, Euan Murray and Dom Thomas goals sealing victory for former Tynecastle coach Stevie Crawford.
Hearts lost on Friday. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Having won every game prior to the East End Park trip, Neilson isn’t too disheartened: “You’re going to lose football matches. The biggest thing for us is that it’s not panic stations.
“We’re still in a good position on the league and we’ve got the Scottish Cup final to look forward to. We’ve got the Betfred to look forward to, we’ve got a really good team, we created a lot of really good chances but didn’t take them.
“Dunfermline will be like us; we’ll win games and lose games, that’s the way it’s going to be this season. It’s who’s got the consistency to continue to win games. We have to try and do that
Neilson isn’t concerned. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
“Dunfermline will lose games as well and the big thing is how you react. Do we throw the toys out and say we need to do this and we need to do that?
“Or do we look at the game and say we created chances, we didn’t take them and lost two poor goals. It’s part of football.”
One player missing from the match was Austrian midfielder Peter Haring. The Hearts man has had a horrible time with injury over the past 18 months and Neilson has explained why he had to rest him in Fife.
Haring was given a break. (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
“He had a hamstring problem which is why he missed the last game,” said Neilson. “If we’d put him on the bench, we’d put him on at some point and the worry was that if he got re-injured then we’d be struggling for substitutes.
“So we’ll give him a couple of days over the weekend and then Monday which means he should be fine for Tuesday.”