Five years on and Ex-Hearts captain Robbie has a new goal

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 08:36

IT was five years ago tonight that Robbie Neilson's memorable late strike earned Hearts an unlikely victory over FC Basel in Switzerland, and now the right-back is intent on ruffling a few more feathers by helping Leicester City back into the English Premier League.

It's safe to say Neilson has landed on his feet since ending his 12-year spell at Tynecastle to move to the Midlands club in the summer just past. Not only has he established himself in the Foxes side, playing 13 of their 17 league games so far, but he's part of a team which is currently sitting third in the Championship, headed only by title favourites Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion.

The Evening News caught up with the former Hearts captain on a dreich day at the Foxes' training ground a few miles south-west of the city, but there was nothing gloomy about Neilson's demeanour as he reflected on a start which he admits has prompted him to ponder what might be if his team can remain on the victory trail.

"It's going really well for me," he said. "The team's going well in what is a really competitive league. We've won our last four out of five and there's a lot of confidence about the place. We've got good strikers, who are scoring goals and we're not conceding many. The local papers are talking about us being in the hunt for promotion but it's not something we've spoken about as a team yet.

"I have to admit I have allowed myself to think about the possibility I could be playing in the Premier League next year. One of the reasons I came here was that I knew there was a chance of the team doing well and moving up the leagues.

"I think every team in this league thinks they've got a chance of getting promotion because it's so tight. The top 15-16 teams are really tight together in terms of points. There's also the chance of going up through the play-offs – it's all about being in the right place in the league at the right time.

"It's only November so there's still a long way to go but if we're still up there in February, then maybe we can start looking to the end of the season."

Neilson admits it was a wrench to leave Hearts, where he'd spent his entire working life, but, having visited the likes of Fir Park and Pittodrie more times than he'd care to remember, he felt he owed it to himself to have a crack at something new.

"It was a big step for me to come down here," he continues. "I had been at Hearts since I was a teenager, and was in a bit of a comfort zone, it was like a family for me up there. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Hearts. I was there for the best part of 13 years and was comfortable in my environment. But I was at a stage in my career where I felt I had to move on. I needed to try something else."

The first few months after the move were hectic, not to mention a bit strange, for a player who, barring a couple of loan spells at Cowdenbeath and Queen of the South when he was younger, had never previously known life away from Hearts. But, with his wife and three children having now joined him down south, and having got to know his team-mates well enough that they felt comfortable mocking him while giving this interview, it seems everything is falling into place for the 29-year-old.

"It was a bit of a culture shock to come into a new dressing-room but it's a good group of boys here and they've helped me settle in," he says. "I was down here for a few months on my own before my family came down. It takes time to get settled but it helps that the football's going well.

"We're in the process of moving into a house in the north of Leicester and I've just got my eldest child enrolled in a school. It's a nice area and the weather's generally better than it is up in Scotland. The whole family are enjoying it. I miss Scotland and I miss the SPL, but this is a new challenge for me and I've no regrets at all about the move. I'm really enjoying it."

So how does the Championship compare to the SPL? "I don't think there's that big a gulf between the Championship and the SPL," he responds. "It's just bigger teams, bigger stadiums and bigger crowds down here which makes it easier to motivate yourself. Certainly for a guy like me coming down here and playing in all these new stadiums, it's great. Down here everything's new to me.

"Standard-wise, I think the top six in the SPL would handle themselves down here no problem. There's plenty familiar faces down in this league, which makes it interesting.

"On Saturday, we played Plymouth and they had Chris Clark, who used to play for Aberdeen, and Jim Paterson, who was at Dundee United and Motherwell. It seems every week I'm coming up against guys I played against in Scotland. We play Bristol City in a couple of weeks, which I'm really looking forward to because I'll get to play against Paul Hartley and Jamie McAllister."

The only thing bugging Neilson's happiness at present is his old club's troubles. Hearts' current predicament is all a far cry from five years ago, when Neilson, who hit only two goals in his 189 appearances for the club, helped the Tynecastle side to one of their greatest-ever European results in St Jakob Park.

"I didn't even realise it was five years ago," says Neilson. "There's a Swiss guy here at Leicester, Bruno Berner, and I was reminding him about that game. He moved to Basel the year after we beat them but he remembers the game because it was the first time they had lost at home in Europe for years. It was a big, big upset and will always be one of the good memories of my time at Hearts."