Hearts debrief: Shankland's great gesture; Outstanding Devlin; Linesman's big call

A look back at some of the key points from Hearts’ Europa League play-off second leg defeat by FC Zurich at Tynecastle Park last night.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

Cammy Devlin has surely never played better for Hearts than he did in the first 45 minutes. The Australian Duracell Bunny patrolled the centre of the Tynecastle Park pitch like he owned it, spraying passes like a quarterback at times and winning the ball back for his team time after time. It wasn’t quite so easy for him to control things in the second half after Hearts went down to ten men, but it wasn’t for the want of trying. Absolutely outstanding.

DEFINING MOMENT

Lawrence Shankland hands his top to a young fan at full time. Picture: Mark Scates / SNS

The dismissal of Jorge Grant wasn’t just decisive. It was horribly ironic and hard to take too. The Hearts bench were furious in the first half about a blatant dive right in front of them that went unpunished. But after picking up a soft yellow card for a foul in the first half on Antonio Marschesano, Grant couldn’t really complain about being seeing red for his dive in the box. There were 54 minutes on the clock and all the momentum Hearts had built up in the first half suddenly stopped.

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

As the Hearts fans walked round to applaud the home fans at the end, one mini Jambo behind the goal was bold enough to leapfrog the advertising pitch, run over to Lawrence Shankland on the edge of the 18-yard box and ask for his shirt. The big striker duly obliged and the young fan dashed back with a huge smile on his face. It wasn’t the night Hearts fans had hoped for (and the little boy shouldn’t have been encouraged), but Shankland’s gesture made his night.

BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT

Zurich take the lead at Tynecastle. Picture: Ross Parker / SNS

Robbie Neilson started with a very attack-minded team, essentially four forwards and an attacking midfielder in Grant behind them alongside Devlin in midfield. The omission of Peter Haring from the starting line up was probably the biggest surprise, not that it mattered. Hearts needed a goal, played positively and totally dominated possession in the first half. Grant played pretty well too. But had he been taken off after his booking, things might have turned out differently.

REF WATCH

Lawrence Visser took his time before making the biggest call of the night, consulting his assistant first before getting the confirmation he needed that Grant had indeed dived in the box. The Belgian official missed a couple of Zurich dives in the first half and frustrated both teams with some of his calls but, despite being booed off at the end, it was a firm but reasonably fair performance.