Neilson hoping to end season on high as Falkirk eye Europe

Falkirk defender Lewis Neilson hopes to end an injury-ravaged season on a high before facing an uncertain summer.

The 22-year-old is in line to start against Motherwell in the Premiership on Saturday, with just four games left on his loan deal from Hearts.

The central defender has missed a large chunk of the season through an ankle injury that required surgery, but is now hoping to help Falkirk in their end-of-season push for a European place by cutting the gap to fifth-place Hibs to two points.

Neilson said: "I'm out of contract in the summer, so it's hard not to think about the future, especially when it's so unknown where you'll end up. So I've been giving it a wee bit of thought.

"But my main focus is to finish the season as strongly as possible and hopefully that'll put me in as good a position as possible."

When asked if he had spoken to Falkirk about a potential contract, he said: "It's something I would definitely be open to, but it's not something we've discussed so far.

"I will try to finish the season as strongly as possible myself and hopefully that puts me in a position to have conversations like that."

The former Dundee United player added: "I had a really good start to my loan. I'd played every single minute up until I got my injury against Motherwell in October.

"It felt like a long process to me – to come back three to four months.

"I probably haven't played as many games as I would have liked to since being back, but that's due to the boys being brilliant. But hopefully I can finish the season strong.

"We've still got one eye set on fifth place. It's still within our reach.

"If we can get a win against Motherwell, that would set us up nicely to go play against Hibs the week after."

Neilson has watched from a distance as his Hearts team-mates have pushed for the league title all season, but knows the move to Falkirk was the right one for his career.

"I'm really close with a lot of the boys," he said. "It's a brilliant changing room so I'm delighted how well the season's gone for them so far.

"Hopefully they can go and do the job.

"But in pre-season, I was over there in Spain with them and I was looking around, there was about seven or eight centre-halves.

"I knew I probably wasn't going to be getting a sniff, so I don't look at it with any jealousy, because I knew I probably wouldn't have been much of a part of that anyway.