Hearts: Robbie Neilson has say on 'rusty' team and gives update on Stephen Kingsley and Nat Atkinson injuries

Hearts' Barrie McKay (L) celebrates making it 2-0 with Alan Forrest during a cinch Premiership match between Hearts and Ross County at Tynecastle Park, on July 30, 2022, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

However, he acknowledged that Ross County had made them work for the three points.

In front of a capacity home crowd, the Gorgie outfit looked off the pace in the first 45 minutes as Ross County took the game to their hosts and were denied by both the post and the bar.

“I thought they were very good,” said Neilson. “Similar to last season, energy, pressing, aggressive, making it very difficult for us to play.

“We knew they would come as a front three and would try and get after us, I just didn’t feel we showed the intensity we needed.”

But, the game turned after the break, as Neilson’s men found the performance and the goals to get their campaign off to a positive start.

“Sometimes when you are out there and it’s 200 miles per hour, you need to come in and settle down and say, ‘right this is it now, the league has started. You can talk all you want in the build up to it, you need to be at it – when you go out there it can sometimes come at you like that’. I think just settling down the players and helping them realise what they needed to do.

“We showed the rustiness of coming into competitive games from pre-season. One of the plus sides of being in Europe is you can build into pre-season. But one of the downsides is you’re not involved in the Premier Sports Cup, which I like because you can come in and play four games and it’s competitive.

“I just felt the first half we didn’t have that competitive edge we needed, that energy to break forward. The second half was miles better after we spoke to them.”

Goals from Alan Forrest, in his competitive debut, and Barrie McKay gave Hearts an unassailable lead and although Jordan White pulled one back, the hosts saw the game out.

“[Alan] will bring us goals and assists. The reason we brought him here is he’s direct, he goes at people and he makes things happen. I think he’ll be an extremely good player for us.

“I like his career path, I think he’s the kind of player Hearts should be signing. He went to Ayr United and did really well, he made the step up to Livingston and did well there.

“Now he’s at Hearts and you can see he has the quality to go up to the next level again.”

The next test will be the capital derby, at Easter Road, next Sunday, with the Hearts boss hoping that the absent Stephen Kingsley (hamstring nick in training) and Nat Atkinson,(lack of energy due to illness) who went off in the first half will be fit..

“I’m looking forward to it,” added Neilson. “I like the derbies coming early, it gives us a chance to go down there and hopefully get three points and that would give us a massive lift.”