Exclusive: James Wilson’s Hearts situation addressed as the Scotland teenager waits.
Despite being dropped from the starting lineup, James Wilson has been assured that he is still an important member of Hearts’ first-team squad.
Despite the fact that he was an unused substitute in Saturday’s Premier Sports Cup match against St Mirren, head coach Derek McInnes holds high regard for the teenage striker.
Wilson started three of Hearts’ four group games in the competition last month before coming on as a second-half substitute in the club’s first two Premiership matches against Aberdeen and Dundee United.
Wilson did not appear in the weekend cup fixture, which lasted 120 minutes before penalty kicks.
Hearts’ second-half attacking replacements were Elton Kabangu and Claudio Braga, as the visitors equalised through Oisin McEntee’s header after trailing 1-0 at halftime.
After 30 minutes of extra time, the Edinburgh club lost 5-4 on penalties, completing a frustrating cup exit in the last 16. Kabangu, a Belgian striker, scored a hat-trick in Hearts’ 8-1 closed-door friendly win over Ross County last week before coming on after 45 minutes in Paisley.
McInnes explained his reasoning to the Edinburgh News after leaving Wilson on the bench. “I had thought about putting Wilson on but I knew Oisin was struggling and Harry Milne started to flag a bit [in extra-time],” said the player.
“Make sure you don’t use all of your subs.James will be perfectly fine. We were concerned about players falling near the end. Oisin and Harry both suffered cramps, and we had already used three substitutes at halftime, including Beni [Baningime].
“We took Oisin off and moved Michael Steinwender to right back. St Mirren used a box with one player and two No.10s above it. I thought we dealt with the game and were much more aggressive during that time.
I enjoyed watching us until the end. We need to show more conviction, courage, belief, and intent to go for the winning goal rather than just letting it go to penalties. Unfortunately, we’ve ended up on the wrong end of it.”
Scottish Premiership resumes with Motherwell match in Edinburgh
Hearts’ next Premiership match is this Saturday against Motherwell at Tynecastle Park.
After defeating Aberdeen and United in their first two games, they hope to maintain their 100 percent record and recover from the weekend’s disappointment.
Wilson hopes to be included in next week’s Scotland squad announcement for September’s World Cup qualifiers against Denmark and Belarus. “It was a tough first half on Saturday, but I thought the second half was a different game, and, of course, we had overtime.
“It’s a difficult one to take,” admitted Hearts midfielder Baningime. “It’s difficult to find the silver lining in defeat, but I believe you must.
“After losing, it’s important to move on and recover quickly.” I believe it has been good since the pre-season, when we beat a Premier League team [Sunderland] in one of our games.
It’s a blip in the road. The game could’ve gone either way.
This is what penalties are. We could come in and say, ‘Oh great, a win.’ Unfortunately for us, this was not the case. It happened, and we must try not to let it derail us any further.
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