ROBBIE Neilson tonight claimed that Jorge Grant’s red card cost Hearts victory in their Europa League play-off against Zurich at Tynecastle and argued the referee should have awarded a penalty.
Grant was ordered off by Belgian referee Lawrence Visser for a second bookable offence in the second-half of the second leg match after going to ground following a challenge by Karol Mets.
The Edinburgh side, trailing 2-1 from the first leg in Switzerland last week, had dominated the encounter, but they struggled after being reduced to 10 men and conceded an 80th minute goal to Fabia Rohner.
Neilson, whose side will go into the Conference League draw along with the likes of West Ham, Fiorentina and Villarreal tomorrow, was furious at the match official’s decision and stated Hearts should have been awarded a spot kick.
“When I speak to our players I say to them, when you’re in the penalty area, you can’t come off your feet,” he said. “If you do, you have to make contact with the ball. He (Mets) comes off his feet.
“The striker, in my opinion, is under no obligation to get out the way. So as soon as there’s contact, it should be a penalty. But the referee has seen it a different way. And it’s cost us the tie."
Asked if the decision cost Hearts the game, Neilson said: “It does. At that point we are still 2-1 down from the previous game. They get a chance to then open up.
“If you give these players time on the ball, they are good players, they are internationals, the league champions. We found it hard then to get pressure when we needed it.
“He has made his decision. Everyone has a different opinion. People say there is contact, people say he goes down too easily, but if you are a defender and you come off your feet and you make a challenge and you do not hit the ball, and you make contact with the player, it’s a penalty.
“But we didn’t get it. It’s happened now. There’s not much we can do. There’s always that regret. If you get the goal, it changes the game. The most pleasing thing is that we were playing the Swiss champions and we dominated the game.
“The pressure the intensity the way we moved the ball and created opportunities. At this level, that’s the difference. If you get one or two, you’ve got to take them.”
Craig Gordon, the Hearts captain, was struck by missiles which were thrown by the Zurich fans when he went to take a free-kick in front of the Roseburn Stand in the second-half and needed time to recover before restarting play.
Neilson said: “‘It’s disappointing. You don’t want to see that in football. We’ve had it already this season at a ground we’ve been at. It’s something that has to be eradicated. You don’t want to see it. I don’t know what it was. If it was a coin he’d probably have caught it!”
Neilson believes that Hearts can go into the Conference League group stages with confidence after their display against Zurich regardless of who they get.
“It gives us massive self-belief,” he said. “We’ve shown we can go away from home and play well and we can play well at Tynecastle with massive intensity and put teams under massive pressure. We should have won the game but it didn’t happen.
“I’m positive because I’ve been here through the hard times, administration, demotion, playing in the Championship, no fans, promotion, top six and now we’ve dominated a European match against the Swiss champions for 60 minutes and we’ve got football until Christmas to look forward to when the Conference draw is made on Friday.
“There’s a financial crisis with the cost of living crisis, but the fans keep putting their hands in their pocket to support this club. As soon as the draw is made they will be flooding the internet looking for flights and hotels. That’s what football’s about — the fans."
