I T WAS an unintentional comparison, but one that instantly conjured up freeze-frame images of a Hearts legend in his prime juxtaposed against a young pretender to his Tynecastle throne.

Robbie Neilson did not mean to liken James Keatings to John Robertson, the Edinburgh club's all-time leading goalscorer, but the similarities between the two players do not require too much of a stretch.

"James has definitely got an instinct in the box; when he is in there you always feel something might happen," said the Hearts head coach when asked about his summer recruit from Hamilton Academical.

That statement could easily be applied to Robertson in his heyday during the 1980s and 90s, a period when the diminutive forward tormented defenders on his way to notching an incredible 214 league goals in 513 league appearances.

Given the high turnover of players in modern-day football, Keatings - a player who also has to rely on his clever footwork due to the lack of an aerial presence - is unlikely to get anywhere close to that tally at Hearts. But his current goalscoring ratio - at a time when Neilson has been hamstrung by something of an injury crisis in attack with Osman Sow, Soufian El Hassnaoui and Dale Carrick out injured - has been recognised by the supporters and head coach alike.

Some who were fortunate enough to see Robertson in his pomp have mentioned Keatings in the same breath as the Tynecastle goalscoring icon.

However, Neilson, who is set to unleash Keatings on city rivals Hibernian in the third Edinburgh derby of the season on Saturday, said: "James has a long way to go before he gets anywhere near Robbo.

"Robbo did it season after season for 15 years. James is desperate to score goals. You get a lot of strikers who do a lot of good work outside the box but don't score goals, but James is the other way about. He does most of his work in the box and scores goals. We knew he was that kind of striker. He is always a threat from cutbacks and any movement at all."

Neilson cites his assistant Stevie Crawford's influence on the training ground as a factor in Keatings' rich vein of form. He added: "Stevie does a lot of work on James' finishing; left foot, right foot, his movement and so on. He is always desperate to learn and Stevie has to take a lot of credit for it."

Some of Hearts' players are likely to be the subject of bids during the transfer window, but it is worth noting advice from midfielder Morgaro Gomis. The 29-year-old was left frustrated by his lack of game time at Birmingham City after he left Dundee United in 2011. And Gomis reckons the Hearts youngsters should draw inspiration from James McCarthy if they want to make it big in England.

The former Hamilton midfielder, who departed Wigan for Everton in a £13 million move 18 months ago, left Scotland with a wealth of first-team experience under his belt.

"The English Championship is a demanding league, the quality of the players is just crazy," Gomis said. "I was in a situation sometimes when I was in the stand for eight weeks in a row, then out of the blue I would be on the bench. It was just crazy. When I went down there I thought I was going to play week in, week out - it was a big wake-up call when I got there.

"For a younger player, I think you definitely need to stay somewhere and play loads of football. Sometimes I speak to them and give them the example of James McCarthy. He started playing first-team football at 16 and moved to England when he was 19. That's a good example that they can look at for someone who was playing week in, week out before they got their move south."

With Hearts on a solid financial footing, director of football Craig Levein admitted at the recent agm that it would take a "ridiculous" offer for the club to even consider selling any of their players.

From what he has seen during the first half of the campaign, Gomis, who moved to Gorgie from Tannadice last summer, reckons his team-mates would not be out of their depth in England. Gomis added: "All the young boys are really good players and if any of them were to move down south, I think they will be ready for it.

"They did well last season even though they went down and you can see from the way they're playing this season that they're enjoying their football. I think all the young boys are ready to play anywhere.

"Of course, if you're going to move down south you have to make sure you're going to sign for a club that you're going to play for. Sometimes it's better to stay with a team when you know you're going to play week in, week out."