Neilson rues attacking woes as Hearts go out

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson has confessed his side must brush up on their attacking focus after their shock Betfred Cup exit at the hands of Alloa.

The Tynecastle side had eased past their part-time opponents with a 3-0 league victory in the capital last week, but it was a d i ff e r e n t story at the Indodrill Stadium.

The Gorgie outfit dominated possession but could not find the breakthrough as poor finishing and wayward passing in the final third came back to haunt them.

Alan Trouten’s disputed penalty in the 109th minute was the t i e’s decisive moment to send Alloa into the quarter-finals but Neilson insists his team should have been out of sight long before then.

He said: “We should have scored, the amount of chances we had, the positions we got into where we should have scored.

“That’s the reason we didn’t progress in the cup.

“We have to go away and we have to work on it and we have to look at the final moment and the concentration in the final moment.

“It was a disappointing day for us, a very disappointing day.”

Neilson’s frustrations boiled over at full- time when he was given a yellow card for his protests at the winning penalty.

Hearts claimed there was no contact when Jamie Walker challenged Alloa substitute Robert Thomson in the box, but referee Gavin Duncan saw enough to award the spot-kick.

Alloa are bottom of the Championship without a win in five league outings but held firm for a first-ever victory over Hearts.