Brora Rangers 2-1 Hearts: Shock Scottish Cup defeat ‘an embarrassment’ – Robbie Neilson

Martin MacLean scored the winner for Brora Rangers as they shocked Hearts in the Scottish Cup

Hearts “can’t accept” the shock Scottish Cup defeat to Brora Rangers said manager Robbie Neilson as he described the 2-1 loss to the Highland League champions as “an embarrassment”.

Christophe Berra cancelled out Jordan Macrae’s opener for Brora, but Martin MacLean’s winner stunned last season’s finalists in the second round.

Neilson admits it is the worst result of his management career.

“Everyone has to question themselves that’s part of Hearts,” he said.

Hearts had been beaten finalists against Celtic two seasons running.

But they have fallen to a part-time side whose league season has been in suspension since January because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

“From our perspective, it’s not good enough,” Neilson told BBC Scotland. “We still have remnants of the relegation season still there in the group, in the club. We need to deal with it and get it moved out.

“We can’t accept that tonight. It’s an embarrassment for the football club and for all of us involved, the standard is not good enough. We should not be coming here and losing games no matter how many shots on target we have, it doesn’t matter, it’s about putting the ball in the net.

“I knew when I came in here I was turning around a ship that was heading in the wrong direction, it had three wins out of 30 in the Premiership. We’ve changed it, we’ve turned it around in areas, but there’s still a lot of work to do here and you can see that tonight.”

Hearts lead the Scottish Championship by 16 points and are on course to be promoted at the first time of asking following last season’s relegation.

However, they have drawn four of their last six games and Neilson accepts murmurs of discontent will grow louder after the cup defeat, especially as he believes Hearts should be aiming for a top-four finish after promotion.

“I’m the head coach, so I have to question myself about what we’re doing, what we’re doing in training, what we’re doing in matches because that’s not good enough,” he added.

“You can go down the way and feel sorry for yourselves, or you can take it on the chin and fight back. I hope there’s players in the dressing room that will do that.”