Hearts begin Scottish Cup campaign with trip to face Brora or Camelon
Hearts will face Highland League champions Bro ra Rangers or East of Scotland outfit Camelon in the Scottish Cup second round.
Robbie Neilson's side will journey to Sutherland or Falkirk for their first involvement in the 2020/21 edition of the competition. Hearts finished runners-up in 2018/19 and 2019/20, losing the final to Celtic on both occasions.
The 20 clubs from the Scottish Championship and League One divisions enter the draw at the second round stage, raising the prospect of some tasty ties and Tranent Juniors, who blew away East Stirling shire 4-1 in the first round, have been handed a trip to face East Fife.
Edinburgh City visit Airdrieonians while the winners of tonight’ s firstround clash between Lowland League rivals Bonnyrigg Rose and Bo’ness United travel to Dundee. Ties are scheduled to be played on Saturday January 9.
Stephen Kingsley is doubtful for Hearts’ Championship match against Arbroath tonight due to a stomach injury.
Deputy left-back Aidy White and midfielder Andy Halliday are waiting to fill in if needed, with manager Robbie Neilson not prepared to take an unnecessary risk with one of his key players.
He substituted Kingsley with 12 minutes left of the weekend win against Ayr United. “We’ll test him before the game. If he doesn’t make it we’ve got Aidy and Andy Halliday so it won’t be an issue,” explained Neilson.
“He’s had a tight stomach, he had it in the cup final and got through the game. We took him off as a precaution on Saturday.”
At the other end of the pitch, Neil son hopes his team’s goalscoring exploits continue. Saturday’ s 5-3 win took Hearts’ goal tally in five league matches at Tynecastle Park this season to 22.
“I think Tynecastle should be a fortress for us. For one, it's a brilliant surface to go and play on ,” said Neil son .“It can be difficult at a number of away grounds and you’ve got astroturf at three of them.
“Some have poor surfaces and it can be difficult to cre - ate chances. A lot of the other games tend to be low-scoring unless they’re on the astro and it’s anyone’s game.
“At Tynecastle, you should be getting the ball forward into good areas as quickly as you can because it’ s a tight pitch. We’ve scored a number of goals and it would be great if fans were there. We scored after 11 minutes on Saturday and generally when you do that Tynecastle would have been rocking. The opposition can go under and the floodgates open. It’s not like that just now. You get the goal and everything is flat for a while so it’s up to us to keep pushing them forward.
“It will b e difficult against Arbroath. They went to East End Park on Saturday and it was 0 - 0 until the 90th minute [before losing 1-0]. They’re very experienced.”
Following the death of former Dundee United manag er Jim McLean, Neil son explained how Mclean’s legacy lingers at Tannadice. Neilson spent 20 months managing United before returning to Tynecastle in June.
“When I was up there as a player and as a manager, he is the main man in the club. He was them an that built it. Before Jim took over they were lower-end second division team. Jim installed a winning mentality around the place. Paul Hegarty was there and Maurice Malpas was still about the place. There was a real affinity to the club and a real loyally to the club.
“If you’re looking at Scottish managers, you’ve got [Alex] Ferguson ,[ Jo ck] Stein and McLean. They’ re probably the three you would put in that bracket of greatness.
“I knew a number of players who played under Jim and coaches who worked under him. There were a lot of sto - ries and I think there will be a few decent books about Jim, his management and how he got the best out of players.
“His legacy up there is unbelievable. Even when I was there you could still feel his legacy from what he achieved. Every manager who went in there was striving to get remotely close to it and that would have been a success.”