Robbie Neilson refuses to use excuses as he sets Hearts their next target after Scottish Cup loss to Celtic

Robbie Neilson refused to look for excuses after Hearts’ Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat by Celtic. Although missing eight players who regularly start matches, the manager had few complaints about the effort expended.

Lawrence Shankland, Robert Snodgrass, Craig Gordon, Liam Boyce, Craig Halkett, Beni Baningime, Peter Haring and Stephen Humphrys all missed the match at Tynecastle Park with a variety of injuries. Celtic won 3-0 with goals from Aaron Mooy, Kyogo Furuhashi and Cameron Carter-Vickers.

“There's nothing you can do about that,” replied Neilson when asked about the lack of attacking options without Shankland and Humphrys. “It creates opportunities for guys to come in and I thought Josh Ginnelly led the line well. Barrie McKay did well for us on those wee areas – we asked him to do a bit of a different role on Callum McGregor. Other guys coming in, I couldn't ask any more in terms of work-rate. At times, the decision-making and quality wasn't there.

“The biggest thing was losing the goal so early in the game, that was a real disappointment. Obviously we are coming into this game with energy and trying to win it to get through, and losing a goal right away was difficult. We had the opportunity to cancel it out on the left-hand side and we let the boy through.

“To the players' credit and to the fans' credit, who were outstanding and got back behind the team, we managed to get a foothold back into the game. We started to come into it with some chances and started to play well.

“The crushing blow was the [second] goal just before half-time. That was a real hard one because from a throw-in we weren't set up. We know that Kyogo, 99 times out of 100, will make that front-post run and we allowed him to make it. That was probably the key moment in the game.”

Joe Hart produced a vital save from Toby Sibbick with Celtic 1-0 ahead in the first half and injured himself in the process of blocking James Hill’s follow-up attempt. “It all comes down to big moments in these games,” commented Neilson. “Celtic had a lot of play across the middle but didn't create a huge amount of chances. We were the same. When we got it, we went side-to-side and got in a few times but nothing really major. When the big moments come, you've got to take them or save them. We were on the wrong end of it today.”

Neilson said he wouldn’t look too far into the future as Hearts’ focus returns to the Premiership. They travel to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen next weekend before an international break to begin European Championship qualifiers.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson and his Celtic counterpart Ange Postecoglou at Tynecastle.

Hearts’ priority all season has been to stay third in the league and qualify for European football. The match next Saturday is therefore an important one with Hibs sitting fourth and five points behind their Edinburgh rivals, with Aberdeen two points further adrift in fifth.

“The target is to win on Saturday, that's all you can do here or at any football club,” said Neilson. “If you start thinking, 'I want to do this in three weeks' time or that in four weeks' time,' you take your eye off the ball. For us now, it's all about Pittodrie next Saturday – win the game.”