GARY NAYSMITH, the East Fife manager, believes Robbie Neilson is a victim of his own success after the Hearts head coach came in for criticism following the Scottish Cup exit against Hibernian.
Neilson began his coaching career at East Fife in 2013, serving as assistant manager to Naysmith, and has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top job at Tynecastle.
Since his promotion from Hearts’ Under-20s manager to head coach in the summer of 2014 he has flourished, claiming the Championship title at a canter ahead of Hibernian and Rangers.
The capital club are sitting in third spot following their return to the top-flight and on course to secure a European place, however their derby record under Neilson has come under scrutiny following Tuesday night’s 1-0 reverse at Easter Road. They have won just one of six against Hibs under Neilson, prompting some supporters to vent their ire online.
Naysmith, a former Hearts defender, believes the flak is part-and-parcel of the Edinburgh derby experience – a fixture he admits to dreading – and indicative of the lofty standards set by Neilson and director of football Craig Levein since their arrival.
He said: “Criticism comes with the job, but where Robbie has been fortunate – and this is entirely down to his own success – is that he hasn’t received much of it. Hearts have just gone from strength to strength since he took over.
“They had a winless run earlier in the season, but this is maybe his first real set-back because Hearts fans always expect to beat Hibs. With the generations of Robbo [John Robertson] and Gary Mackay, up to the cup final in 2012, Hearts have had the upper hand, so it doesn’t sit well when they don’t win the derby. It hurts, and the manager gets the flak.
“Honestly, I never used to like the games against Hibs – it was just relief when you won, but if you lost you wouldn’t leave the house for a few days. But Robbie understands that as much as anyone and he will handle it and regroup. I think the vast majority of fans realise that he has done a terrific job.
“It’s worth keeping the bigger picture in mind. If you had said at the start of the season that Hearts would be sitting third and in the driving seat for a European place, most fans would have snapped your arm off.”
Naysmith reckons the anger will swiftly turn to adoration again if Hearts earn a place in next season’s Europa League, with Hearts 11 points ahead of Ross County in the final qualification spot with two games in hand.
He played alongside Neilson during one of the club's most famous European nights of recent years, their 3-2 win over Stuttgart at a raucous Tynecastle 16 years ago, and has backed his former team-mate to bring nights like that back to Gorgie.
“European qualification would be a fantastic achievement for Hearts. It would be more big games, more sell-outs under the lights at Tynecastle – those fixtures are brilliant occasions," he said. “Depending on the luck of the draw you could end up in the group stages, so there is still plenty for the Hearts players to aim for.
“Robbie will probably be looking even higher and trying to put as much pressure on Aberdeen in trying to finish in second place, because I do believe Celtic will win the league. They won’t be giving up on that.”
Hearts will attempt to bounce back this weekend and arguably have the perfect fixture, as they travel to crisis club Dundee United.
The former Scotland international added: “Everyone is hurting after the Hibs game, but football is a game of ups and downs. If it was all ups then it would be easy. It is about working hard, dusting yourselves down and getting the right response. That starts tomorrow against Dundee United.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here