And rightly so but there’s no denying Jordan McGhee made a horrendous error of judgement in the defeat against Aberdeen on Saturday but Robbie Neilson isn’t crucifying him for it.
His ‘moment of madness’ when he inexplicably handed a Kenny McLean cross, which saw him under absolutely no pressure, quite literally handed the Dons a penalty with Adam Rooney converting this to given them a one-nil win.
McGhee made a mistake but Neilson has defended the defender saying ‘these things happen’, telling the BBC.
‘Jordan is a 19-year-old kid playing in the biggest game in Scotland today and these things happen. He knows he made a mistake and doesn’t need me or the players to tell him.’
With younger players they’ll make mistakes, even older players have made similar ones at times! This is something Neilson says you have to expect from inexperienced players, who will only learn from these mistakes.
The Head Coach added he’s sure McGhee will learn from this.
‘That’s football and it happens all the time. If you are going to play young players like we want to do then you have to accept these things.
‘It’s easy to bring in experienced players to fill the gaps, but we want to bring on young players and they will learn from these sort of things. I’m pretty sure the next time a ball goes in towards the back post his hand won’t be anywhere near it.’
Victory could have closed the gap on Aberdeen to a point, as it is Hearts are now seven-points behind the Dons following defeat who had also (at the time) closed the gap on Champions Celtic to a point, which has since been extended to four again.
This loss was the first the Jambos had suffered since Aberdeen beat them at Tynecastle in September with Neilson still happy, finishing by saying.
‘We have come a long way and we could have had a point at Pittodrie if it hadn’t been for that mistake, but it shows how well we are doing. We are still working hard and are still in a great position.’
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