Neilson Grounded As Hearts Go Top

Photo by Jeff Holmes

Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson promised there was more to come from his side after they moved to the top of the Premiership table with a 2-0 win over Motherwell.

Gavin Reilly's 33rd-minute penalty put Hearts in control and they never looked like relinquishing their lead after Billy King fired a shot through Connor Ripley in the 64th minute.

The comfortable win made it three victories from three and sent Hearts two points clear of Celtic.

Neilson said: There is still along way to go as we are only three games in and we can't be getting carried away with ourselves.

Everyone wants to come and see teams that win and that's what we are trying to do. First of all it's about working hard.

I was really pleased over the piece and we were fairly comfortable. But we have spoken already about getting geared up for Saturday against Ross County.

We haven't spoken about results or anything else. We need to try and win that game and move on again.''

Hearts were able to rest Blazej Augustyn, Jamie Walker and Juanma, their match winner at Dundee, with both goalscorers seizing the chance afforded to them by their first starts of the season.

Neilson said: We have quality players and we had the luxury of Jamie Walker on the bench and that's the reason we have a big squad. I could also send Juanma on for half an hour.

There will be more to come once we get fitter, someone like Osman Sow is a bit behind as he missed a bit of pre-season but he worked so hard for the team but he still has a bit to go.

Juanma is the same as is Igor Rossi so there is still a lot more to come.''

Motherwell boss Ian Baraclough felt his side were overrun by their hosts.

He said: I thought we could come here and stand up to what they had to throw at us physically but I thought we were second best in the battle.

They seemed to anticipate second balls and knockdown that little bit quicker than us. That's the first time I have seen that for a little while.

We have to move on and make sure we are better against Aberdeen on Saturday.

We have to be better in possession too. We had really good situations on the break and had numbers and didn't use it well.''