Passionate, gritty, but jury’s out on Robbie
HEARTS legend Gary Mackay still remembers the “miserable winter’s night” in Clyde when he realised Robbie Neilson would cut the mustard at Tynecastle.
“He was just a young man, out on loan at Queen of the South,” recalls Mackay, who made a club record 640 appearances for the Jambos before becoming an agent.
“It wasn’t a game for the faint-hearted and late in the second half Robbie and Andy Milne went into a tackle together on the touchline. Andy was a hard player and raked his studs all the way up Robbie’s thigh.
“Lesser men would have come off but Robbie just got up, gave Andy Milne a glare and got on with his job. I knew then that he was made of the right stuff.”
Few who watched the 36year-old perform over the subsequent decade would refute Mackay’s assessment.
In 200 league games for Hearts and more at Leicester, Dundee and Falkirk, the right-back with the fearsome throw was the epitome of professionalism and commitment.
“Robbie was always composed, very much in control of himself,” said John McGlynn, the former Hearts coach who nurtured Neilson through the youth ranks and then worked on the first-team staff under George Burley.
“He was a disciplined, organised guy who basically ticked all the boxes of being a good professional. He was a great athlete, a great trainer. In any exercise you did he would always be at the front.”
Lee Wallace, a team-mate at Tynecastle, recalls a formidable work ethic. “Without fail, Robbie was the first through the door and the last to leave,” he says.
Cornerstone
Alongside the likes of Craig Gordon and Steven Pressley, Neilson was a cornerstone of the Hearts side that overcame managerial upheaval and the chaotic ownership of Vladimir Romanov to win the Scottish Cup in 2006.
McGlynn cites Neilson’s goalsaving challenge in the final against Gretna as the defender’s defining moment. “He just wouldn’t be beaten,” he adds.
A secondplace finish in the same campaign also split Old Firm rivals Rangers and Celtic for the first time in over a decade. Yet for all his virtues, Neilson spent his career splitting opinion. For every supporter who relished his attitude and endeavour, another questioned his pace and ability, his genuine class at the summit of Scottish football. When Leicester made their approach in 2009, a poll on influential fans’ forum Jambos Kickback saw 68 per cent of supporters vote not to renew his contract – hardly a ringing endorsement of a 28-year-old stalwart supposedly entering the peak years of his career. It is certainly true that Neilson