Hearts return to Scottish Premiership action on Sunday when St Johnstone come to Tynecastle as we look to maintain the form that saw us romp away with the Scottish Championship last season.
It’s a step up in quality of course, however you do wonder – with all due respect – how many at this level are that much better than those at Championship level? Some clearly are but not all and given the squad we’ve retained and added to Robbie Neilson has told the BBC what his aims are for the season….
A ‘decent cup run’ and a ‘top six’ finish would be those aims, with him sure the Jambos are capable of this.
‘We want to get to the top six and I think we’ve got a squad capable of getting there and hopefully get a decent cup run.
‘I think we’re prepared. We’ve got a good squad in.’
The competitive season began with a win over Arbroath at Tynecastle in the League Cup on Thursday and we know Neilson was somewhat critical of the performance at full time.
Hearts 4-2 Arbroath – League Cup: Click Here
He, at the time backed us to improve, and has done so again ahead of the St Johnstone game and went onto add he feels the expectations that’ll be on his side are understandable and as difficult as it could be, as he looked to play down expectations too much, a top six finish is ‘where we want to be’ and that’s the aim.
‘There are always expectations when you are a club of Hearts’ size and there should be expectations. We’ve got to remember that we’re a Championship team who got promoted in the summer.
‘We’re back in the top flight, it is going to be difficult, but we want to try to get top six – that’s where we want to be.
‘That’s where we believe we can be this season and then hopefully build from there.’
Neilson is expected to name most, if not all, of the summer signings to date in the squad having failed to start any in the four-two win against Arbroath with him also saying these additions were needed due to the step up.
Momentum carried us through in some games in the Championship, with the home crowd also helping and we’re expecting a sell out on Sunday, so ‘we could go through games at 60-70% and still get a result’ but we need to be ‘at 90-95% minimum to get a result out of games’ this term and these additions will help with that.
Last season’s momentum is something he wants us to carry forward and will enjoy celebrating our Scottish Championship success again on Sunday ahead of the 2015/16 campaign but it’ll only be ‘a great day’ for the Head Coach if we get the three-points.
He finished by adding.
‘We want to enjoy the day but approach it properly and work hard but it will only be a great day if we can get three points.’
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