Andrew McKinlay is adamant Hearts did not bow to ‘mob rule’ in sacking Robbie Neilson, insisting they would have dispensed with the departed manager’s services ‘weeks ago’ had they listened solely to dissenting fans.

Neilson has forever struggled to win over a section of the Jambos support, despite delivering two Championship titles, third place finishes, European group-stage football and Scottish Cup finals over the course of his two spells in charge. The tipping point proved to be Saturday’s defeat at home to St Mirren, played out against unsavoury chants for the former Hearts defender to go.

Owned by supporters’ organisation The Foundation of Hearts, who have two representatives on the club’s board, the Tynecastle outfit is a special case. Ploughing almost £150,000 into the budget every month, fans may rightly regard themselves as having more of a say in decision-making than at rival teams, but McKinlay, the club’s chief executive, maintains this was no snap judgement with the team slipping to fourth with seven games remaining.

“No, absolutely not,” he said when asked if it had been a panic decision. “The last few weeks have been really difficult for anyone watching the team. A panic decision would have been making it maybe several weeks ago when things were starting to not look great. 

“We’ve watched it over the last few weeks. It was a run with some tough away fixtures, but it wasn’t just the results, but the performances as well. Then Saturday there, the hope was you come back to Tynecastle where we hadn’t lost all season, except against the Old Firm or in Europe, and it just didn't happen for us. 

“That really brought home to us that it was hard to see how we were going to turn the corner and we need to do that pretty quickly.

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“You are conscious of it [the supporters’ anger on Saturday]. But you have a proper grown-up, reasonable discussion as a board. The fans have their two reps on the board and will give a view from that perspective, as they’ll have taken soundings from their own side of things.

“I can’t imagine if I was in the manager’s shoes that it would have been nice to hear those things. But he has heard them before, as have other managers, and they just get on with their job.”

St Mirren delivered Hearts their fifth successive defeat at the weekend and the Gorgie men have now won just two of their last nine league matches. With third place in the Premiership again delivering guaranteed group stage football in Europe, assuming either half of the Old Firm with the Scottish Cup, a recovery was seen as vital with an estimated £5 million to £6 million of extra turnover on the line.

“Every decision you make is a risk,” added the CEO, who said Neilson accepted Sunday’s dismissal calmly and pragmatically, whilst still retaining confidence he could have turned around fortunes. “To have left Robbie in, people would say that was a massive risk. So it was a balancing decision and this was the decision we felt was the correct one.

“We all know what’s at stake financially over the next period of time and just by finishing third in the league. Our belief is that, with the team we have, we should be third in the league. You look at the turmoil other clubs have had this season - one of them [Aberdeen] now ahead of us - and we believe we should be above.”

Whilst third is the current short-term target, McKinlay will challenge Neilson’s successor to aim higher in future. The Tynecastle overseer has lofty ambitions for the club but insists he remains realistic at the same time.

“In the here and now, it’s about third place,” he said. “I was criticised heavily when I first came into the club and I talked about getting us back as the third force in Scotland. I was told that I lacked ambition.

“I’d love to be able to challenge the Old Firm. Do I believe we can get closer to them? Absolutely. Do I believe we can split them? Maybe in a season, where one of them has a bad season, there’s an opportunity there. But it’s very difficult. 

“I look at Hearts as a team that over the years, especially at Tynecastle, will beat Rangers and will beat Celtic on occasion here. Since I’ve been here over the last few years I haven’t seen that and I want to see that again. So, that to me is the first thing, get closer to them in individual games and then see where that takes you to.”