Robbie Neilson reveals Hearts star who will miss Celtic clash as St Johnstone boss feels 3-0 loss was 'harsh'

Hearts boss Robbie Neilson has revealed Stephen Humphrys will be absent for the Premiership clash with Celtic during the week after missing the 3-0 home win over St Johnstone.

Hearts boss Robbie Neilson during his side's Premiership clash with St Johnstone at Tynecastle Park. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The Tynecastle Park men maintained their five-point lead in third place thanks to a double from Josh Ginnelly and a strike from Jorge Grant. They did so without Humphrys, while Alex Cochrane was replaced with Andy Halliday during the second half as a precaution. “He tweaked his knee in the Motherwell game and it didn’t settle down,” Neilson said. “We got it scanned and he will miss the midweek game but should be fine for the cup game.” On Cochrane, he added: “Just a tight hip at half-time and with a number of games coming up we felt it was an opportunity to get him off.”

Neilson is wary of making changes for the fixture with Celtic at Parkhead on Wednesday ahead of the meeting between the clubs in Gorgie in the Scottish Cup quarter-final next Saturday. “We need to go there and try and win the game,” he said. “We have a way of playing and we want to take that to Celtic, challenge ourselves against one of the top teams in the country. They are outstanding at the moment, have a great squad and good manager. It’s a hard place to go and if we go there and just bang it we will get beat so we need to go and play the way we want to.”

St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson, who revealed Andy Considine and Nicky Clark picked up injuries on the eve of the game, felt the score didn’t reflect the way the game went. “I thought 3-0 was harsh because up until they scored the third I always felt we were in it and creating chances," he said. “We had the courage to keep playing, we attacked and tried to get at them – so that opened us up a bit. Hearts took their chances when they came along and when we got ours we didn’t take them. So that was a lesson for us and probably shows us where we are. I have come here and seen us play worse but get results, as a player, assistant and a manager.”