Supporters are ready to turn out in their numbers for the Conference League tie

A healthy crowd is expected at Tynecastle Park for Hearts’ first home Conference League tie of the season against Omonoia Nicosia. Under new head coach Neil Critchley, the Edinburgh club tried to reset their campaign with Saturday’s 4-0 Premiership victory over St Mirren. Now comes Critchley’s European debut against a Cypriot side not regarded as a Continental superpower but boasting a wealth of experience in UEFA competitions.

Ticket sales are moving steadily and it is anticipated that more than 17,000 people should be inside Tynecastle come kick-off on Thursday evening. More than 1000 supporters are travelling from Nicosia. Omonoia demolished Vikingur Reykjavik 4-0 in their opening Conference League tie earlier this month and bring a squad of seasoned internationalists to Edinburgh. Their name may not have sparked the kind of ticket clamour that a Spanish or Italian side would, but Hearts supporters are still likely to generate a passionate atmosphere under the Gorgie floodlights.

Players and coaches know Tynecastle is the kind of venue capable of intimidating opponents. “That's it, yeah,” agreed the Hearts defender Frankie Kent. “And I think last season it was the same. I know we had a bit of a sticky start but throughout the season, as it progressed, I think we had a really good record at home. So, yeah, hopefully we can just do that and carry that on.

“Europe is quite important in the sense that you always get a good crowd for European nights. It's under the lights, there's an atmosphere and if you can use that, if the crowd can see you guys making yourself hard to play against, you can get something going again.”

Critchley has already mentioned to players the importance of harnessing fans’ support. “That's it. He sort of touched on that in training building up to this game that we need to use the crowd. I feel like we used it a bit on Saturday in terms of our pressing and how they got behind us and just doing the basics as well. I think that's just always the main thing and the main priority is: You get them right, you always give yourself the best chance.”

Midfielder Blair Spittal’s energy in recent matches - St Mirren especially - typified the approach Hearts fans desire from their side. Sprinting across the field to close opponents down generated a welcome reaction from the stands. “I agree, 100 per cent,” said Kent. “And that's probably been the most important thing. He has been congratulated on that, but then what probably people didn't see is that when Blair went over and done that, someone filled into his spot.

“I know it's obviously small details and stuff like that, but these probably things were probably going against us towards the start of the season in terms of trying to get that going. Like I said, fans will always get behind you if you're doing that and you're showing your work and doing the basics well, then we always give ourselves the best chance.”

Tynecastle’s ambience is an extra weapon for Hearts to exploit, although the flip side of that coin is the pressure it creates when events on the field don’t appeal to the locals. “It's finding the right balance between that in terms of with the crowd behind you and teams coming in, then it's not an easy place to play when we're on it and when we're performing well.

“If it's the other way around and we're not performing up to standard, then obviously they'll let you know. That probably also gives the other team an advantage in thinking: ‘Oh, we've got them on the ropes here.’ So it's finding the balance, but hopefully we can progress starting from tomorrow.”

Kent is set for a key role at the heart of Hearts’ defence on Thursday. His leadership and presence will be evermore important to deal with Omonoia’s probing creative players. He is familiar with how Critchley’s teams defend having encountered him in England. “I played against him a couple of times, yeah, from when I was at Peterborough and obviously he was at Blackpool. I didn't have a very good record against his team, actually. I think we lost three out of five,” remarked the centre-back.

“When the boys were asking me if I knew him and stuff like that, I just said straight away: ‘His team is so hard to play against, from my experience of playing against them.’ They had a really good team at Blackpool. I think you've seen from the first game, I know it's still early doors, but he's trying to put that into us. Blackpool were just a rigid and structured team. We knew what they were going to do, but they were so good at it. There weren't really any real weaknesses in how they played or anything like that. They were very structured and very hard to play against in terms of how they played against us. So, yeah, hopefully it's just a carry on from that.

“I've played in all sorts of teams and there's obviously the different types in terms of you play against a really high-pressing team and blah, blah, blah. But, with how he wants us to play, he wants us to be on the front foot and stuff. Also being just solid is, I think, you're not conceding and you always give yourself the best chance.”

Critchley’s hands-on methods on the Riccarton training pitch have appealed to Kent. “Yeah, him and his assistant. It's been good, obviously. He is hands-on and he gets involved, he's very clear and his instruction, I think, is very good. We've worked on stuff, obviously, building last week and obviously every game is different, but he just reiterates that it's all about us and it's going to be about us. That's been nice.

“I spoke to him. I think he's tried to work his way around everyone, in all fairness. He was just asking me, family-wise, if everything was all right. He was just touching base and then that was it, really. Nothing too formal, just a quick pull on the training ground and that's been it, really. I told him I scored against him, obviously, which he forgets but, yeah, that's it.”

The attraction of Europe lured Kent north to Scotland last year and Critchley took the chance to join him knowing that the Conference League was a major factor. “Yeah, it's a good opportunity and it's big games like tomorrow,” said Kent. “It's the reason you come up here. It's the whole reason why we were talking about it and, obviously, the schedule is very difficult, but this is what we asked for, so we wanted it and we worked so hard last year to get to that point, so we want to just make the most out of it.”

Whilst some footballers complain that they are being asked to play too many fixtures, Kent won’t complain at the modern-day schedule if it means he is involved in competitions like the Conference League. Hearts are engaged in a relentless period of seven games in 22 days. “It's not so much that I'm against the amount of games,” said Kent. “Obviously, we're still in that point where it is probably about 40, 50 a season, but then I look at someone like [Kye] Rowlesy, who's been playing consistently for Australia.

“I mean, we played Aberdeen, he goes and flies to Australia on the Monday, plays in a game on a Wednesday, then does all the travelling and that, so I can understand that sort of side of it. For us, I mean, we're lucky. We get to play 40, 50 games a season, touch wood, and injury-free. It's good for us.

“Kye loves it. He loves playing for Australia. I know that he loves doing that and me and Rowlesy are close. Obviously, Cammy [Devlin] has been doing it as well. They love it. They love going over there and they love going back home and playing in different stadiums and countries and everything like that - as you would do. I mean, even down to the jet lag alone. I think he [Rowles] came back from Japan [last week], landed at 12 or one o'clock at night and then trained the next day. No matter who you are, it's going to be difficult.

“Like I said, he loves it and everyone's used to the schedule now and getting used to it. But obviously, we didn't have it [Europe] last year. We had the free weeks leading up to games, didn't we? But this is what we asked for. This is what we work so hard to go towards, is to get these Thursday nights and make the most of them.”