Alex Cochrane's Hearts view on Rangers' penalty, players blocking and positives for the Viaplay Cup semi-final

Tynecastle defender is determined not to allow events at Ibrox to have a lasting impact

Alex Cochrane won't wallow in the despair of Hearts' defeat at Rangers. There is no time with Livingston due at Tynecastle Park on Wednesday before a second meeting with the Ibrox club in the Viaplay Cup semi-final at Hampden Park.

Frustrated, angry and disillusioned at seeing their 1-0 lead overturned in the dying minutes, Hearts players cannot afford to indulge negative emotions too long after the 2-1 defeat. Peter Haring's foul on Connor Goldson was heavily disputed by the visitors due to John Lundstram's dunt on the Austrian, James Tavernier scored the resultant penalty on 90 minutes, then Danilo headed the winner two minutes later.

Cochrane, the Hearts left-back, explained the importance of focusing on upcoming games rather than looking back too much. "It was very difficult to take. For 90 minutes or so the gameplan worked perfectly, but football is longer than 90 minutes now," he admitted.

"Obviously, the penalty happened, but we had to see the game out for the nine minutes of injury time and it's a very hard one to take. We have to pick ourselves up and go and play Livi now because that's a massive game for us. Three points is massive on Wednesday."

The Englishman does not believe there will be any psychological hangover for Hearts when they confront Rangers again this weekend. "No, I don't think so. I think we have positives to take from this week," he said. "We have shot ourselves in the foot with the goals and the times of them, but there are also positives to take and we will look at them.

"Livingston is the main focus, but we will go in next Sunday full of confidence and belief because we did that [at Ibrox]. We put in a good performance for 90 minutes but it obviously wasn't enough."

Cochrane did concede that Hearts were aware of Rangers players blocking them at set-plays. on more than one occasion. "It was something that was spoken about at half-time about the blockings," he stated.

"Obviously, you know when you go to those places and the crowd are on top of the referee - some decisions may go your way and some may not. It was just one of those things, but the penalty was given. After that, we had to regroup and make sure we didn't concede."

Positives for the Tynecastle outfit stem from their overall performance in Glasgow. Retaining possession and playing intelligently on the break, they had Rangers rattled and the home crowd irate by half-time.

"There were plenty of positives to take because we were 1-0 up at Ibrox for 90 minutes and I thought we defended well. We also broke on them too and had a few chances. There are definitely positives and we have to pick ourselves and focus on Livingston," said Cochrane.

"It's obviously very disappointing to lose. We know that and the lads in the dressing room were gutted, but the game is finished now. We have to learn from that five-minute spell because it has cost us three points.

"When we conceded that penalty, the worst thing that should have happened was that we took a point back and moved on. We should have regrouped and tried to hang on but it wasn't to be."