Neilson: Our fans have right to boycott

ROBBIE NEILSON says he understands if angry Hearts fans want to boycott away games in the Championship in the wake of the Tynecastle side’s controversial relegation. The Edinburgh outfit’s place in the second tier was only finally confirmed on Monday when they and Partick Thistle lost an arbitration case against the SPFL’s decision to call last season early during the Covid-19 pandemic with final places decided on a points-per-game basis. Announced yesterday, the Championship fixtures for 2020-21 see Hearts host Dundee on the opening day on October 17. It is a fixture given added spice by the Dens Park side being at the centre of controversy when they voted ‘no’ to ending the season early back in April before later changing their mind. Another opening-day grudge match sees Inverness Caley Thistle travel to Dunfermline. There is bad blood between the two clubs after Pars chairman Ross McArthur had to hit back at Caley Thistle’s veiled allegations that they had been bullied and threatened by him during the seasonending vote process. Neilson hopes the Hearts fans will get behind his side in their

numbers at Tynecastle when he takes charge of the first match of his second spell after quitting Dundee United last month. Yet while he says boycotting is a decision for fans, he is sympathetic to the strength of feeling amongst the rank and file at the club’s treatment by the SPFL. ‘I can totally understand the frustration and annoyance of everybody, the anger and the hurt,’ said Neilson (right). ‘But it (boycotting) is a decision the fans will need to make themselves. ‘We will be desperate for the support and we will hopefully be able to get it in the home games. ‘But I can totally understand their annoyance at the way things went. ‘It just depends how they feel and everyone will make their own decision on it. There will be fans that are desperate to come and watch us, which we would like. But there will be fans who will still harbour that anger, which is understandable. Obviously we were very disappointed with the outcome on Monday. ‘We had to go through the process and see if certain things happened. ‘But now we have got the first games of the season to look forward to and it’s a relief to have them to focus on. ‘We’ve got a league to try to go and win to get ourselves back up again.’ It will be interesting to see if Dundee chief John Nelms is welcomed into the Hearts boardroom after the voting fiasco. But, focusing on the on-pitch rivalry, Neilson is looking forward to testing his side early against a title rival. He said: ‘It’s a great one for us because Dundee are going to be one of the main contenders with us for the league.’