Neilson happy despite loss

ROBBIE NEILSON insists there were ‘positives to take’, despite Hearts losing 4-0 to Blackburn Rovers in Spain. The Jambos went down to the heavy loss in the first of two friendlies during their training camp in Marbella. An opening strike from Sammie Szmodics, a double from George Hirst before the break and Bradley Dack’s effort in the second half ensured a comfortable victory for the english Championship outfit. Hearts fielded a strong side, including Stephen Kingsley continuing his comeback from a hamstring injury, as well as top scorer lawrence Shankland, Alan Forrest, Michael Smith and Jorge Grant. And, despite rustiness that was also evident in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Swansea City, Neilson was happy with the 90-minute challenge ahead of Sunday’s encounter with la liga side UD Almeria. He said: ‘It was a good exercise for us, a real good work-out. A lot of the players got 90 minutes. We’ve only had three training sessions and two games since we came back, and there was a bit of rustiness. ‘That was disappointing but we’ve got plenty of preparation now. ‘The most important thing is the players got 90 minutes and there were a lot of positives to take out of it — and some negatives we need to tidy up on.’