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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
Sport
Euan Robertson

Robbie Neilson defends Hearts line-up selection in heavy Rangers defeat as he admits Jambos 'capitulated'

Robbie Neilson has defended his team selection for Hearts' 5-0 defeat against Rangers.

The 41-year-old decided against starting Ellis Simms for the trip to Ibrox to face Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side.

Neilson introduced Simms at half-time Aaron McEneff and the Everton loanee impressed despite the heavy loss.

But the Jambos boss insisted he had no regrets over his decision to start Simms on the bench.

“I don’t think so," Neilson replied when asked by Sky Sports if he regretted not starting Simms.

"In the first half, even though we were 1-0 down, we did well. We played Barrie [McKay] up there with his pace and were causing Rangers some problems. But I do think [Simms] coming on gave us a bit of physicality up there.

“It’s a disappointing day, but the only way we can remedy that is by winning on Wednesday night.”

Hearts spurned two massive chances while only 1-0 down against Rangers.

They were punished for the misses as the Light Blues scored four goals in the last half hour to inflict a sore defeat and Neilson admits his side fell apart.

“I’m very disappointed,” Neilson added. “First half, we were alright. We came in 1-0 down but I actually thought we started the second half quite well.

"The first 10 or 15 minutes, we had a couple of opportunities that we probably should have scored.

“We then lost the second goal and seemed to just capitulate a bit, which was disappointing.

“It shows you where we are at the moment. We’re a good team - a very good team - but to get to that level, we need to improve.”

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