Hearts boss Robbie Neilson gives Stephen Kingsley update, lauds Toby Sibbick and reacts to win over RFS

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson believes defeating RFS in the Europa Conference League will imbue his players with confidence and singled out Toby Sibbick for special praise after their 2-1 win over RFS in Group A of the Europa Conference League.

Early goals from Lawrence Shankland and Andy Halliday were enough to give Hearts victory despite Kevin Friesenbichler halving the arrears later in the first half and while Hearts cannot progress to the knock-out stages due to Fiorentina’s 2-1 win over Istanbul Basaksehir earlier in the night, Neilson spoke of his pride at watching his team record their first European at Tynecastle in six years.

Neilson said: “I was delighted with the first 20-25 minutes, we started the game really well. We had a lot of intensity, we had the fans behind us, we managed to get two goals. Then we took our foot off the gas a wee bit and allowed RFS to get into the game. They scored a fantastic goal and we never really got control after that, which was disappointing.

“We’re delighted to get the two wins, it’s great for the players, that belief that we can play and win at this level. We now have a massive game up at Ross County to try and get our league campaign kick started and then Istanbul next Thursday.

Hearts' Stephen Kingsley was clearly emotional after injuring his hamstring against RFS>

“The biggest thing for me was hearing the fans roar. They come to European games wanting to see goals and we’ve not managed to score as many as we would like here.

“Tonight we got the roar of the crowd and it really kicked us on. RFS, in the first 15 to 20 minutes when we brought the energy and the fans brought the energy, they really struggled with that intensity. That shows what we can do.”

Defender Sibbick, who has been maligned by parts of the Hearts support since arriving at the club for a second spell in January, put in a man-of-the-match display and had his name sung by the majority of the home crowd. Neilson said he could not be happier for the 23-year-old.

“I’m delighted for him,” continued Sibbick. “Toby has had a hard time recently, when he came in he hasn’t hit the levels he’d have wanted consistently. But there have been flashes of what we had tonight, he just has to maintain that. To his credit he has worked hard, he’s waited for his opportunity and he has come in tonight to European football and played like that. He now has to maintain that aggression, that intensity, and concentration levels because there is no doubt about his ability.”

Robbie Neilson was pleased with his team's performance against RFS.

The only concern for Neilson was a second-half blow for Stephen Kingsley, who went off clutching his hamstring and visibly upset about his injury. “He’s just tweaked his hamstring a little bit, we’ll need to see over the next couple of days,” said Neilson. “It’s disappointing, because we just seem to be one little niggle after another with players. But I thought Lewis [Neilson] came on and did really well so we’ll see how we are for Sunday.”