Robbie Neilson: Hearts would have beaten Hamilton with 11 players on the pitch

Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson will have words with Igor Rossi next week after claiming the defender's red card cost them victory at Hamilton.

With Hearts on top, Rossi was sent off by Bobby Madden for a two-footed challenge on Darren Lyon with five minutes left of the first half.

Hamilton immediately took control and Hearts needed a great save from Neil Alexander to prevent Michael Devlin's header going in as the Ladbrokes Premiership encounter ended 0-0.

Both Blazej Augustyn and Dario Zannatta headed against the bar for Hearts either side of Hamilton substitute Jesus Garcia Tena's 86th-minute dismissal for a late tackle on Arnaud Djoum, but Neilson felt the crucial moment had been Rossi's indiscretion.

'If you go in with your two feet it's a red card, end of story,' Neilson said.

'He's going to miss next week (Inverness away) and he only has himself to blame. It was a silly challenge. I'll speak to him on Tuesday.'

Neilson added: 'It was probably the most eventful game you'll get without goals. We started pretty well at one of the hardest places to come. It was quite windy with the ball blowing everywhere and they really competed well off the back of a bad result. The first 30 minutes were good. We created some opportunities and had we stayed with 11 men we would have won the game but with 10 we had to sit in and defend. I didn't feel we were under too much pressure and we were also a threat on the break.'

Rossi is the fifth of Hearts' summer signings to have received red cards this season - another for Callum Paterson on their last trip to New Douglas Park was rescinded - and Neilson accepts players have to learn.

'A lot weren't for bad tackles - they were for silly things,' Neilson said.

'It's boys coming over to this country not knowing the environment and how things are dealt with: what you can get away with and what you can't get away with. They have to learn to adapt to the style.'

Hamilton manager Martin Canning was frustrated that the teams were evened up after he took off the booked Darian MacKinnon at half-time to prevent him seeing red.

'Darian is an experienced player but I felt right from the start they were in the fourth official's ear about Darian's two or three tackles,' Canning said.

'He got booked obviously in the melee after the sending off and I just felt it wasn't a risk worth taking leaving him on the park. I felt they would be at him to try and get him sent off. I have absolutely no issue with it. I just didn't think it was worth the risk keeping Darian on.'

Canning added: 'I said to them at half-time to keep 11 men on the park but Jesus made a bit of a lunging tackle and got himself sent off. To be honest at that point we were in control of the game, we're still pushing trying to win the game so it's frustrating we end up in the last few minutes trying to hang on to get a point out of a game we've been so dominant, in terms of possession anyway.'

Canning said he never doubted that his players would respond positively to their 8-1 thrashing at Celtic Park and felt they might have been celebrating victory if Madden had seen a foul on Dougie Imrie by Prince Buaben. 'I think it would have been soft but I think it was a penalty,' Canning said.'I thought he was wrong side and he got clipped.'