Head coach Robbie Neilson has said the only thing he could be disappointed about really in the one all draw with Kilmarnock at the weekend was our woeful finishing.
Video – Kilmarnock Highlights
Speaking to the Official Site Neilson explained that he felt Hearts should’ve added at least two or three or even four more goals to Jamie Walker’s first half penalty but poor finishing and good goalkeeping kept the game too close and at one nil any opposition can always sneak one and grab a point.
‘We should have been four or five goals up at half time. I thought we played well, particularly the last fifteen minutes of the first half, but we had five clear cut chances after we scored. If you don`t take your chances while you`re on top, you`re always at risk of being caught out from a free kick or a set-piece. They were bombing balls into the box and one`s dropped to their player on one occasion.’
The gaffer went on to say that the message is clearly we need to be far more ‘clinical’ in the final third and in and around the penalty box and he thinks that our attitude is very much that if we miss a chance, we’ll have plenty of more to follow and whilst our chance creation is good, it counts for little unless you put them past the keeper and into the back of the net.
‘We need to be more clinical. We seem to think if we miss chances, it`s fine because another one will come, but that isn`t always the case. We need to score goals while we`re dominating. Our performance in front of goal wasn`t good enough.’
With Gavin Reilly shown red for kicking out in injury time, Neilson was obviously asked that question and he said he hadn’t seen the incident but if it was categorically shown that he did kick out, he could have no complaints at all with the decision of the referee.
What was important was that Reilly learned from that if it was the case and didn’t repeat it.
‘If Gavin has kicked out, which I didn`t see, then it`s obviously a red card and he`ll need to learn from it. He`ll miss two games and he`ll regret it while he`s watching the team in the next few matches.’
Sam Nicholson was also interviewed after the game and he agreed we needed to start doing more with the chances we are creating in games to make life easier for us – and he counted himself amongst those who needed to be better.
‘It’s all down to taking chances, and I especially include myself in that. I could’ve scored a couple and, whether you call it luck or not, it’s not happened. The more chances you create, the more chances you have to score. But, for me on Saturday, it seemed like the more I created, the less chance of it going in. You can’t let it get your head down and hopefully I can bury a few in the next game.’
Nicholson did put in an impressive showing on the day and had he found the net it would’ve been a deserved goal for his efforts, and he went on to say that whilst we felt comfortable with the one nil lead, obviously in football you are never safe with such a narrow margin.
And when a side does level and you’ve missed chances you always look back with a sense of ‘what if’.
He also had praise for their goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald joking he was in inspired form on the day but he always seems to be when he plays against him as scoring had been ‘an issue for years’ for him.
‘Jamie is an outstanding keeper and is a brilliant shot-stopper. He is always confident when it comes to making big saves. One of my shots went straight to him – and he still managed to make it look like a great save. I don’t now how he managed that. It was like being back in training, he always had a mental block on me. I don’t know if he’s trying to carry that on or what, but I’m not too happy about it!’
Share this article
Related Articles
