Robbie Neilson says Hearts are progressing despite back-to-back defeats

Robbie Neilson looked at the bigger picture as Hearts prepared for their Scottish Cup tie against Livingston on the back of two defeats.

A 5-0 hammering by Rangers at Ibrox in the cinch Premiership last weekend was followed by a surprise 2-1 loss at home to struggling Dundee on Wednesday night.

The Jambos fans vented their frustration at the end of that loss even though they remain 10 points clear of fourth-placed Motherwell.

Ahead of the visit of Livi in the fifth round of the cup, Neilson noted that despite the loss of important players such as John Souttar, Craig Halkett and Michael Smith at various times in recent weeks, Hearts have surpassed season landmarks.

“There is going to be bumps in the road through everyone’s career, that’s part of football,” said Neilson, who welcomes back Smith from a back injury with Halkett the only absentee.

“That said, the objective coming into those eight games after the winter break – we are at the last game now – is to make sure we are still in the cup and also try to increase our lead.

“We have managed to take that gap from five to 10 so although everyone says that we have had a dip in form, we have managed to progress from where we were at the start of that break.

“We knew it was going to be difficult. At the start of the season we had everyone pretty fit, quite stable and in the last three or four weeks we have lost a number of key players.

“Apart from the Old Firm who have big squads and who can rotate quite freely, everyone else has found it difficult because I think we have had four midweek games on the bounce so there was going to be ups and downs but we have managed to progress that lead.

“So yes, we have had two poor results that we are not happy about but we need to look at the bigger picture sometimes and say right, we are still progressing, can we maintain or improve that gap as well?

“The last two games haven’t been good enough, we have the chance to put it right on Saturday.”

Hearts have been in two finals in the last three seasons, losing both to Celtic, the second one in a penalty shoot-out, and Neilson is looking to go one better this season and bring the trophy back to Edinburgh for the first time since 2012.

The former Hearts defender said: “It has been a while since Hearts have won it so we need to take that next step.

“We were a couple of kicks away from winning it two years ago, we want to get as far as we can but first and foremost it starts tomorrow, there is no point looking four or five games down the line, we have to win tomorrow.

“It is a tough draw but it is a home draw and that’s what you want to give you the best chance of getting through and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.”