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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
Sport
Ben Banks

Robbie Neilson highlights two Hearts players for praise as attentions turn to RFS after Celtic loss

Robbie Neilson was pleased with the performances of Cammy Devlin and Lawrence Shankland as Hearts went down 4-3 losers against Celtic.

It was a madcap encounter at Tynecastle, marred by numerous decisions made by VAR. Eventually Shankland's hat-trick was cancelled out by James Forrest, Daizen Maeda, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Greg Taylor's efforts, but Neilson was delighted with his three-goal star - who came off the bench for Stephen Humphrys - and Devlin's battling in midfield.

Attentions are now fully on a crucial victory at home to RFS in Hearts' penultimate Europa Conference League Group A match this Thursday. Neilson said: "I thought Cammy did well for us, there are aspects of the game that he can do better. He is about energy, forward passing and getting forward and getting in peoples’ faces and I thought he did that well. There are other areas he can still improve.

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"To Lawrence's credit, he didn’t start as we felt it would be more beneficial to have Stephen up there. He was always going to get on at some point.

"It’s great for the kid, he’s a goal scorer and that’s what he does. We have to get the ball to him in these areas. We’ve got to take that performance into every week, we’ve been up and down recently.

"We have a massive game on Thursday against RFS and if we can take that performances, that energy that intensity into the game then we can win the game. Then we have to get ourselves going in the league again."

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- Hearts tie down Finlay Pollock to long-term deal as Joe Savage lists key attributes

- Stephen Kingsley laments Hearts injury luck as he admits 'I’ve never really seen anything like it'

- Craig Halkett and Kye Rowles Hearts injury latest as Robbie Neilson delivers 'still be out' update

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