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Relief For Robbie With Forfar Win

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Head coach Robbie Neilson has said his main emotion at full time last night in the Scottish League Cup tie against Forfar was relief.

Having taken the late lead ourselves, before Forfar levelled the scores six minutes from full time it took extra time for us to be separated properly, despite them being reduced to nine men as the game drew on.

Fielding a much changed side for the game to get match minutes into others, Neilson explained to the Official Site that we’d certainly made hard work of the game, but credit had to go to the opposition for that.

‘They pushed us right to the wire. At one point, it really could have swung either way, but ultimately we`re the team in the hat, so we`ll move on to the next game.’

With goals coming from Kevin McHattie and Gavin Reilly, the second strike was originally credited to Callum Paterson, but Reilly nicked it from him with a cheeky backheel on the line, and Paterson came in for praise in his unfamiliar position on the day.

‘We put Callum into central midfield to give us a bit of drive. I thought McKirdy did really well tonight, but he`s a young lad and he was starting to tire, so we put Callum on to give us a bit of energy. He`s claiming the goal, but I think a few of the boys said Gavin scored it, so we`ll have a look at the video and find out for sure.’

With seven changes made, Neilson had to admit the match certainly didn’t go as smoothly as he’d have hoped for but it was job done and having got through to the next round, he’s glad he rested some and gave others the opportunity to impress – especially as in hindsight for those who haven’t played much, the extra time period will really do them the world of good.

‘We made a lot of changes today. When you keep a regular team and bring in one or two boys, they slot into the fluidity of how the team plays. When you bring in seven, like we did tonight, it disrupts the balance. Tonight, we had a lot of guys who`ve been lacking in game time, and things didn`t flow as well as they can do, but they did their jobs and they`ll all be happier with the win on top of it.’

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