NEILSON READY TO AIM HIGH

Boss wants to close gap on Old Firm but admits he needs quality

JUST minutes after the final whistle sounded at Hampden, Robbie Neilson was already talking targets. After a first season back as a top-flight club, there are those that Hearts and their head coach have ticked off and others which have still to be attended to.

More than anything else, though, Neilson believes the success of his side this season means the main target his players have to concern themselves with is the one they now have on their backs.

As the undisputed third force in the country, theirs is now a prized scalp. Dundee United, Hibs and Aberdeen will be among those with designs on it.

‘When you play for Hearts, you’re always a target,’ Neilson added. ‘Everybody ups their game. We take a massive travelling support to away games, it’s part and parcel. We just need to try and recruit well.

‘Everybody will be gunning for us. But we’re not looking below us, we’re going to try and get as close as we can to the teams above us.

‘We finished 13 points clear in third, the aim is: can we beat that? If we can beat that, can we get closer to Rangers and Celtic?’

To achieve that goal, it’s plain that Neilson (right) will need to infuse his side with a good bit more guile.

There was plenty of effort from his players at Hampden but too few were willing — or able — to open the game up with a piece of brilliance.

Ellis Simms started brightly and struck the post early on. Long before Ryan Jack opened the scoring in extra-time, the Hearts forward was looking increasingly isolated.

Amid the natural sense of dejection, Neilson was entitled to ask for a sense of perspective.

‘Obviously we’re very, very disappointed. We’ve come so close,’ he added. ‘We’ve gone to extratime and we’ve not managed to do it. Sometimes you’ve just got to take it on the chin.

‘We’ve lost but we’ve had a brilliant season. At the start of the season, we know there were people saying we were going to go back down. There were people saying we weren’t going to make the top six.

‘We’ve fought to get promoted in difficult circumstances, we’ve fought to get third, we’ve fought to get to the final. Next season, we fight to get third again, we fight to get Europa League and we fight to win this competition.’

Three defeats in four finals is tough to take. But it is also grist to the mill for all involved.

‘Everybody wants to get back,’ added Neilson. ‘There’s huge disappointment to lose the game, but the big picture is we’ve secured Europe and got to a final.’

Europe brings its own pressures yet as a means of luring players to the club it should be a powerful bargaining tool.

‘It’s excellent,’ Neilson said. ‘It’s not just what we can offer players to come and play.

‘Even the guys we’re trying to get to re-sign (will want it) which is maybe even more important than recruitment.

‘We’re trying to get players in but these things take a while. We’ve got targets and we will recruit in the summer.’

Much had rightly been made of the fact that Hearts didn’t have to endure 120 minutes plus penalties in the heat of Seville three days before the cup final.

Long before they succumbed to the inevitable over much the same timeframe at Hampden, though, it was clear that it would take more than just a quiet week’s preparation to yet bridge the gap to Rangers. The blunt fact is that Neilson’s side just didn’t possess the quality in either their starting team or on the bench to get the job done.

A Rangers squad that could have been forgiven for labouring after their midweek travails still had sufficient fresh legs to turn to. ‘The changes that Rangers could make, we didn’t quite have that level,’ Neilson admitted.

‘We need to try and get that. We need to get a group of players that after 80 minutes you can change things and we can have a right go. Yeah, we can be extensive in our recruitment, but we’re not going to get to that level. It will take four or five years to get there and that’s where we need to be realistic on it and say, “What’s the next step?”

‘The next step is, “Can we play in Europe on a Thursday night and can we win on Sunday?”.

‘The boys come back on June 21 and now it’s all eyes on recruitment. We’re losing John (Souttar) and we’ve offered Peter Haring a new contract.’

The silverware they craved was not to be but the campaign has still been a resounding success.

The important thing is to ensure that Saturday was a set-back along the road to better days.

‘I’ve enjoyed the season, it’s been great,’ Neilson added.

‘But we’ve got a month off. I just want to get right back at it.’