Hearts hope for busy deadline day with new signings as Robbie Neilson admits: 'You can see we need a few'

Robbie Neilson admitted Hearts “need a few” new signings following the Premier Sports Cup exit against Kilmarnock at Tynecastle Park.

The Edinburgh club hope to be busy on transfer deadline day after a series of injuries and a busy fixture list weakened their squad. Innes Cameron’s header knocked them out of the League Cup with Craig Halkett, Liam Boyce Stephen Kingsley, Jorge Grant and Beni Baningime all absent.

Manager Neilson was reluctant to reveal which positions are the priority but stated he wants new recruits with 24 hours of the summer transfer window left. He will also look at free agents after the deadline but said Burton Albion striker Louis Moult is not an option being considered.

“I don’t like to put a number on it but you can see that we need a few to give us more,” admitted Neilson. “When we’re asking these guys to go again and again, you are going to get those performances at times.

“You want to be in European football but it has its effects on players, especially with the number of injuries we have. It’s the match-winners who have that spark to go by people. If you don’t have that sharpness it’s difficult to break teams down. You could see that.

“We’re disappointed with the performance. I think we are better than that but you can see the fatigue in the players. It was a frustrating night. We had loads of possession but didn’t really do a lot with it.

“Killie scored the first goal with their first attack and that let them sit in and kill the game. We just didn’t have that spark that we’d normally have. A culmination of a number of games back-to-back and all the effort that’s been put in, we’re asking players to go again and again.

“Because of the injuries we’ve not had a chance to rotate and I think that had a big influence on the game. We knew we had to get bodies in anyway. We couldn’t rotate the squad or take the chance to get people off the pitch for key games. So it’s about recruiting but also getting these guys ready for Saturday [at Livingston].”