MY HEARTS SET ON THE SUMMIT
Robbie targets top spot for his rampant Jambos
Hearts Hamilton
Hearts boss Robbie Neilson challenged his players to grab top spot after they came from behind to beat Accies.
Jamie Walker fired a double – one from the penalty spot– and Sam Nicholson made sure of the points in injury time.
Nei l son pra i s e d the character shown by his players after recovering from Al i Crawford’s opener.
It was a third Premiership win on the spin for Hearts who remain within two points of leaders of the leaders.
Hearts have played a game more but head to St Johnstone on Saturday knowing a victory would send them top.
Celtic aren’t in action until they travel to Inverness on Sunday and Neilson said: “It would be great to go top.
“They’ve got that desire to get up the league, you want players who want to be at the top of the league. We need to try to keep winning games.
“We know it’s going to be difficult to stay where we are but we have to believe we can do it. I am delighted with the character. To bounce back from losing a goal is great.”
An inspired substitution from Neilson helped change the game with Nicholson’s introduction after an hour and he had a hand in Walker’s double before scoring himself.
However, it took a disputed penalty for Hearts to grab the lead when Nicholson went down under early sub Shaun Want’s challenge.
The Accies kid had already survived a first-half penalty claim against him when Tony Watt hit the deck in the box.
Neilson said: “I was 70 yards away so it’s hard to tell whether the penalty decision was right. I could only see Sam going at pace and someone coming in off the ground.”
After a dominant first half from Hearts it was Accies who broke the deadlock f ive minutes after the break. Darian MacKinnon found Grant Gillespie out on the left and he picked out Crawford who finished from close range.
Walker rattled the post with a half-volley but the winger wasn’t to be denied and Nicholson delivered from the right for him to head home.
Hearts made sure of the points with nine minutes left and again it was Nicholson who played a vital role.
He burst into the Accies box and Want dived in to concede the spot-kick with Walker the man to step up and slot home.
Nicholson’s introduction changed the game and he grabbed a deserved goal when he fired home in injury time from Robbie Muirhead’s cross.