Hearts boss Robbie Neilson upbeat over Liam Boyce’s Scottish Cup final hopes

Robbie Neilson is hopeful a groin problem will not keep Hearts top-scorer Liam Boyce out of next weekend’s Scottish Cup final.

The Northern Irish striker was forced off just 12 minutes into Saturday’s 3-1 defeat by Rangers in their final cinch Premiership match of the season.

The two teams meet again next weekend at Hampden and Neilson is optimistic the issue will not rule Boyce out.

“It was just a tight groin,” said the Hearts manager. “He thinks it’s just a tightness. That’s all it is.

“As soon as there was any issue we just got him off. There’s no point in taking any risks. It will just be dependent on the next day or two if it is just a tightness.”

Neilson was disappointed to see his team finish off a positive league campaign with a defeat.

“I thought it was one of those games with an end-of-season feel about it,” he said. “Rangers made loads of changes, we made a lot of changes as well. There was no real intensity to the game to be honest with you. That was the disappointment for us.

“Yes, we’re trying to get guys as fit as we can get them for next week, but there are two sides of it. There’s disappointment about the performance, but also we kind of expected it a little bit with the rustiness of some of them coming back into the game.

“When you play for Hearts and you’re playing one of the Old Firm at Tynecastle you need to be up for it. There were periods of the game when we weren’t aggressive enough.

“We didn’t get the press on and allowed them to play through. Because we made a number of changes, putting guys in who hadn’t played together, you get that sometimes.”

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was delighted with the way his side performed, despite making 10 changes and leaving out all his main men