Robbie Neilson claims Hearts had Celtic 'rattled' at Tynecastle and they had to turn to £20million worth of talent to try get over the line in the capital.
Ange Postecoglou's men came out on top in a seven-goal thriller with Greg Taylor stabbing home the winner to secure all three points which proved huge with Rangers dropping points at Livingston later in the day to open up a four point gap at the top. Lawrence Shankland netted a treble for the hosts in a game that had it all as VAR made it's big debut in Scotland and was kept busy in Gorgie. Neilson is adamant his men should have won the game as he expressed they must do better defensively.
Speaking to Edinburgh Evening News, he said: “There have been periods in games where we have played like that and done well, then other periods where we haven't done it. We are still losing goals we shouldn't be losing. You can't score three goals and lose four in a game. It needs to be better.
READ MORE: Robbie Neilson highlights two Hearts players for praise as attentions turn to RFS after Celtic loss
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“People are giving us a pat on the back and saying we were unlucky. We should have won that game. We scored three goals against Celtic at Tynecastle, so we need to be better defensively. You want Celtic, Rangers and Hibs to come here and get turned over.
"We had them on the ropes, had them rattled. They had to turn to their bench and bring on £20million worth of talent to try and get over the line. We should at least have taken something out of the game.”
Michael Smith returned from injury to ease Hearts' defensive issues but was withdrawn in the final stages against Celtic. However, Neilson has confirmed that was just precautionary with the next block of games coming up pre World Cup finals.
He added: “We took Michael off on Saturday because we couldn't take a risk with him.
“His hamstring started tightening up so, if you keep playing him for another 15 minutes, he could end up out for six weeks [if it tears] and we are back to square one.
“We decided not to take the risk in general with the next block of games coming up. He has just come back, we put him into a high-intensity game, he hasn't done a lot of training, so we need to be careful.”
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