Hearts manager Robbie Neilson says his team will reap the benefits of a few days rest after a Premiership defeat at Livingston.
The Jambos are dealing with a number of injury issues and are looking at the free agency market to bolster their squad. A Cristian Montano goal was enough to seal a 1-0 Lions win an this Jambos loss. This follows a Premier Sports Cup exit to Kilmarnock on Wednesday, two defeats to FC Zurich plus coming up short with a rotated team against Celtic, making it a tough patch for Hearts.
It's been a relentless run of games but with their Europa Conference League group stage campaign to begin at Tynecastle against Istanbul Basaksehir on Thursday, Neilson believes five days between games will be useful: “There will be 20,000 fans there and it's European football. The most important thing for us is getting energy back in the group.
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"We have five days to prepare now. Over the last week or two it's been relentless, now we have a wee bit of a break before the next match.
“The first 20 minutes we did well, did everything we spoke about, and then we got caught up in the game. We weren't good enough after that.
"Similar to Wednesday night, we didn't have that spark because of fatigue in the team. We need to get that energy back for the final moment."
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