Neilson points to quality in reserve for Rangers as telling factor in Hampden showdown

ROBBIE NEILSON believes it was the greater strength in depth of Rangers that was the telling factor as his Hearts team went down to defeat in the Scottish Cup Final, saying that the quality their opposition brought off the bench made the difference.

Rangers were asked to play 120 minutes for the second time this week following their defeat on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League Final on Wednesday night in Seville.

Despite those exertions, it was they who would prove to grow stronger the longer the contest at Hampden went on, and the Hearts manager argues that the number of quality replacements Giovanni Van Bronckhorst could call upon made their midweek labours irrelevant.

“I would probably put it down to the quality for the player that is coming into the pitch for them,” Neilson said.

“A lot has been made of Wednesday night’s exploits but when you look at the team they put out, four maybe five of them actually played in it. The new ones have that freshness so we knew today’s game was going to be very difficult and the t wo of the ones that came on scored the goals and that is where we need to get to.

“I learned we are a team who can come here and compete and put ourselves in a position to win the game. We started the game probably the better team, Rangers built into it but probably never really caused us a whole lot of problems. Other than Bassey getting down the wing and putting in crosses and some stuff down the right as well, in the grand scheme of things we probably had enough chances to win the game. But it wasn’t to be here today.”

Neilson’s optimism for the future is bolstered by the fact that he should have a relatively low turnover of players in his squad over the summer, securing most of his key players on extended contracts.

“We have managed to do that, the only one is Peter

Haring who is out of contract but we have offered him a new deal and he is making a decision on that,” he said.

The task for Hearts now, according to Neilson, is to show their fans that they can take the fight to both Rangers and Celtic on a more regular basis.

“We have had hard times over the last couple of years but I think [ the fans] can see we are getting there,” he said.

“We are back where we want to be but we need to rebuild and come back again, try and get closer to the Old Firm.