Hearts boss Robbie Neilson claims there are still “remnants of the relegation season” in the club and has promised to deal with that as quickly as possible.

The Tynecastle outfit were on the receiving end of one of the biggest Scottish Cup upsets in recent memory last night at the hands of Highland League side Brora Rangers.

Taking the lead against the Edinburgh side twice, Brora saw themselves through to the next round of the competition having only trained a handful of times this year and not playing a competitive match since the start of January.

Having been runners up in the past two seasons running, Hearts will be rueing their dismissal as a good cup run would have likely been an objective at the start of the season for them.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound, Robbie Neilson said: “Firstly, credit to Brora. Although we had a lot of possession and chances, we didn’t put the ball away.

“We have remnants of the relegation season still there in the club and we need to deal with it and get it moved out.

“We can’t accept that, it’s an embarrassment for the football club and for all of us involved.

“I knew when I came in here I had to turn round a ship that was heading in the wrong direction. It had three wins out of 30 in the Premiership. We have turned it round in areas but there’s still a lot of work to do.

“Everyone has to question themselves, that’s part of Hearts, and I’m the head coach so I have to question what I’m doing because that’s not good enough.”

After causing one of the great Scottish Cup upsets, Brora were left jubilant last night and they are now looking ahead to the rest of the competition.

Brora manager Steven MacKay had been optimistic ahead of the second-round tie despite massive odds in Hearts’ favour.

“In a normal season this would have been an astronomical result but you throw in the circumstances that surrounded this game: we haven’t played since the first week of January, we have had five training sessions and one friendly and that’s it,” he said.

“We had no right whatsoever to win this game but the character of this group of players is unbelievable and I’m so privileged to be the manager of such an incredible team.

“You won’t believe me, but I said in the dressing room I had a funny feeling we could do something tonight.

“This will come as a massive shock to most but internally we had an inkling that we could do something special.”

Mackay, whose side host Stranraer in the third round, added: “It could potentially have been our last game of the season so we are delighted we are still in the Scottish Cup.”