Robbie Neilson is confident Hearts will not suffer another embarrassing Scottish Cup exit at the hands of non-league opposition this weekend.

Despite cruising to the Championship title last March, the Tynecastle manager was left fighting for his job in the wake of his side’s 2-1 defeat to Highland League side Brora Rangers. The result drew stinging criticism from supporters, some of whom were still to be won over by Neilson following his return to the club.

Nervousness over a repeat of that shock will only be natural when Hearts travel to Ayrshire to face West of Scotland League side Auchinleck Talbot tomorrow in front of an expectant and hostile local crowd and the TV cameras.

However, with the on-form Gorgie outfit currently in confident mood and eight points clear in third in the Premiership, and with only half a dozen of the squad dumped out of the tournament by Brora still involved, Neilson is assured of avoiding a banana skin.

“The Scottish Cup is a chance to win silverware,” he commented. “We didn’t manage to do it last year so we have to try and put it right this year.

“We know cup football is like that. You saw in England last week a lot of upsets [in the FA Cup] and this weekend there will be upsets too. It’s part of the romance of the cup and we have to make sure we’re ready for it.

“It’s a different environment to what we’re used to but it’s one we look forward to. Going down there will be great, there’ll be 4,000 fans there, a good atmosphere and it should be a big game. For us, I’d rather go to a ground like that than one where there’s 50 people there. It’ll be a good, proper cup atmosphere and hopefully we can show our quality.

“We’ve got a totally different team now [compared to Brora]. There are very few players who played that night who are still here.

“So, we go in with a different group of players. For me, we go into a cup competition, we’re a club that should be winning cups and to do that we have to get through these early stages."