Hearts refuse to use absence of ten players as excuse for defeat by Celtic

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson refused to use the fact that he had so many key players sitting in the stands as an excuse for his side’s exit from the Scottish Cup after a 3-1 quarter-final defeat by Celtic at Tynecastle.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson gives instructions during the match against Celtic.

The absence of captain and top goalscorer Lawrence Shankland, Stephen Humphrys and Yutaro Oda limited the home team’s attacking options, while midfielder Robert Snodgrass also failed to recover from injury in time. They joined the likes of Craig Gordon, Craig Halkett, Beni Baningime, Peter Haring, Gary Mackay-Steven, and Liam Boyce, while Alex Cochrane was deemed fit enough to join the fray as a second-half substitute.

"There's nothing you can do about that,” said the Gorgie boss. “It creates opportunities for guys to come in and Josh Ginnelly led the line well. Barrie McKay did well for us in those wee areas – we asked him to do a bit of a different role on Callum McGregor. Other guys coming in, I couldn't ask any more in terms of work-rate. At times, the decision-making and quality wasn't there, though.”

The timings of Celtic’s goals, just two minutes into the game and then at the very end of the first half, were deadly, while Joe Hart’s double save from Toby Sibbick and then James Hill which was sandwiched in between was just as crucial to the smooth run towards the semi-finals. "It all comes down to big moments in these games,” stated Neilson. “Celtic had a lot of play across the middle but didn't create a huge amount of chances. We were the same. When we got it, we went side-to-side and got in a few times but nothing really major. When the big moments come, you've got to take them or save them.”

Captain Lawrence Shankland was one of many Hearts players missing against Celtic.

But he lauded the show of resilience from the Hearts players and fans as they refused to crumble after the earlier opener and upped their levels after the break, despite Kyogo Furahashi adding to Aaron Mooy’s early strike in the 45th minute and Cameron Carter-Vickers wrapping the scoring up 10 minutes from the end.

"The biggest thing was losing the goal so early in the game, that was a real disappointment,” continued Neilson. “We had the opportunity to cancel it out on the left-hand side and we let the boy through. To the players' credit and to the credit of the fans', who were outstanding, we started to come back into it and play well. The crushing blow was the goal just before half-time. That was a real hard one because from a throw-in we weren't set up and we know that Kyogo 99 times out of 100 will make that front-post run and we allowed him to make it. That was probably the key moment in the game.”

With silverware now beyond them this term, the Tynecastle side have to bounce back quickly, cement third place and hope that one of the teams above them win the trophy to guarantee them a route back into European group stage football. "The target is to win on Saturday, that's all you can do here or at any football club,” added Neilson. “If you start thinking, 'I want to do this in three weeks' time or that in four weeks' time,' you take your eye off the ball. For us now, it's all about Pittodrie next Saturday - win the game.”