Only Rangers and Celtic can cope with harsh winter insists Robbie Neilson as Hearts boss rallies squad for run in

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson says only Rangers and Celtic are capable of coming through a brutal run of winter fixtures unaffected as his recharged Jambos gear up for a vital run-in.

After eight games in just three-and-a-half weeks Neilson's side have gone off the boil slightly with just one goal scored in their last four.

But although some fans have started to grumble over recent performances - the 2-1 home defeat to Dundee particularly rankles - Neilson's side still maintain a 10-point gap over the chasing pack in the race for third place in the Premiership.

Hearts travel to take on basement boys St Johnstone on Saturday and the manager reckons a full week of uninterrupted training will benefit his side in Perth.

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Neilson said: "It's been a while since we had a full week because we've had four midweeks on the bounce so it's been good to get a wee bit of preparation and proper training because previously it's just been game-recover-game-recover.

"It's been good to have time on the training pitch to work on how we want to play, all the basic principles.

"We had about a week to 10 days to hammer that home when we came back towards the end of the winter break but as soon as you get into the games,