Gary Mackay: Wise media management from Robbie Neilson over key games in title tilt

Robbie Neilson’s media management in the last week or so has been spot on.

Robbie Neilson has put out some clever messages through the press.

He wisely highlighted Hearts’ two away games against Ayr United and Queen of the South in the press. He said they were difficult games and he was completely right to do that.

Friday night past was a horrible and scrappy 1-0 win and we are in for a similar type of match in Dumfries this Friday. These games aren’t pretty and I expect Robbie will have stressed that to the players as well as publicly through the media.

If you think Dunfermline on Friday night was difficult, that in some ways is bliss in relation to Ayr on a night where the weather is wild as it was last week. It might be the same again at Palmerston Park given the forecast.

In my time, none of the changing rooms at Ayr or Queen of the South were particularly salubrious and now we have the situation where temporary facilities are being used because of the pandemic.

You have a lot more players and staff changing nowadays so players need to know what they are walking into. They need to go in with their eyes open rather than thinking they are about to play at the Bernabeu

Aside from picking a team to win the game and setting out tactics accordingly, I think Robbie was very wise to highlight to everybody that these two away matches were going to be incredibly difficult.

We have overcome one stuffy and awkward opponent to get up the road with three valuable points. Now we have to try and do the same this week to maintain the momentum we have right now.

I liked the initial look of Hearts’ two new arrivals, Aaron McEneff and Gervane Kastaneer, at Ayr. McEneff really wanted the ball and wanted to go forward, which is what we need from middle to front.

I liked the fact he wanted to take responsibility, he’s got quality and doesn’t shirk a physical challenge. These are all important attributes now and if/when we get back to the Premiership.

Kastaneer has a physicality about him that you don’t always get in a winger. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do over the coming weeks once they’ve settled in to the demands at Hearts.

A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.