Hearts boss Robbie Neilson has say on Craig Gordon wonder save and 209 days undefeated

Robbie Neilson encourages his Hearts players during the fixture with Inverness CT. Picture: SNS

The home side emerged victorious thanks to Jamie Walker’s penalty, an award which ICT boss and Hearts legend John Robertson disagreed with.

It was the club’s first match in 209 games and they performed in front of an empty stadium with crowd noise piped in on request of Neilson.

The Hearts boss felt the team had their moments throughout the game and that there were positives to take with a number of players getting their first-team debuts, including new signing Stephen Kingsley, with some getting crucial minutes to build up their match fitness.

“It was good to get back to competitive games,” he said. “I think we had some really good periods in the game where we popped it [around] well. We were slack at times as well and not where we expected to be but that’s expected after such a long time without competitive games.

“In friendlies you try to get to a good tempo but it is not the same as competitive games.

He added: “It’s been a long time, 209 days since the last one so that’s 209 days undefeated.”

Neilson witnessed Craig Gordon pull off a stupendous save early on from Inverness CT attacker Daniel Mackay.

It was something the Hearts boss is used to have played been a team-mate of the goalkeeper and now getting to see him perform such heroics every day in training.

Neilson said: “You see it every day in training, he’s a top goalkeeper, that's why we are lucky to have him here.

"We’ll have a lot of possession in games, this season I would expect to anyway. And that’s where you need a goalies of Craig’s experience who has been at Celtic and is a Scotland international.

You go long periods without making a save and you make a world class one and he did it tonight for us.

"It’s easier for a goalkeeper to be under constant pressure. It’s very difficult to have nothing to do then all of a sudden pull one off.”