NEILSON JOY AS HEARTS NEAR FULL STRENGTH
ROBBIE NEILSON declared himself pleased with the way his injured Hearts contingent are gradually returning to contention ahead of the Scottish Cup final against Rangers on May 21. The Jambos have been hit with a spate of fitness issues surrounding key players in recent weeks, but Neilson remains confident that everyone bar long-term absentee Beni Baningime will be available for the Hampden showdown with the Europa League finalists. After Stephen Kingsley and Andy Halliday returned to the squad against Ross County last weekend, John Souttar, Michael Smith and Cammy Devlin are all back in the frame for today’s trip to Celtic, while Craig Halkett is earmarked to return in the final league game at home to Rangers next weekend. ‘We have Souttar, Smith and Devlin back involved with the group tomorrow as we build them back in,’ said Neilson. ‘We’re gradually getting there. I’m pleased with the way it’s going. ‘You’ll have seen the bench in the last few weeks, we’ve been down to the bare bones. ‘But we’re starting to get them back now. We always knew it would be closer to the final before we got them all back, apart from Baningime, and we’re starting to get there. ‘The plan is for them all to feature before the final. A couple of them will be on the bench against Celtic, some will be involved against Motherwell on Wednesday and then I’d like to get the majority of them ready for the following week against Rangers here. ‘It’s really important mentally that the players are ready for it but also physically to give them that wee bit of game time.’ Neilson is hoping Hearts can finally achieve one of their pre-season targets today — by winning away to one of the Glasgow sides. ‘We’re cemented in third place at the minute but we’d like to get as close as we can to the Old Firm and get that points gap down,’ said the Tynecastle boss. ‘We also want to get that belief that we can go to Glasgow and win. We spoke about that at the start of the season but we have not managed to do it. ‘We managed to go to Rangers and draw (1-1 in October of last year). ‘The last time we went to Celtic Park, it was a close game (a 1-0 defeat in December) but we want to really try to win these games.’