Hearts to accept criticism as Neil Critchley details how they must react after Hibs defeat

An honest assessment from Neil Critchley doesn’t erase the pain from Hearts’ Edinburgh derby defeat to Hibs. Most important is the response. The head coach is frank enough to acknowledge criticism in the aftermath of Sunday’s 2-1 loss and doesn’t attempt to shirk any of it. His way of reacting is simple - win Friday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final and secure a last-four place at Hampden Park.

Dundee visit Tynecastle Park on Friday evening for a cup tie which was always important in front of the BBC Scotland television cameras. It takes on added significance for Hearts following events last weekend. Management and players at Riccarton have had time to digest what happened in Leith, now they need a reaction.

“Yeah, definitely. That's the game - you have to overcome disappointment. You have to respond from defeats,” said Critchley. “We have to take this because we didn't do well enough on Sunday. It is a big game on Friday night and there's no way better to respond than a quarter-final of the cup at home. We want to get to Hampden. The last time we lost a derby, we went on a good run. Hopefully we can do that again. The team has shown resilience before.

“The players have had enough praise from me recently in terms of how we've gone about our performances. On Sunday, we weren't good enough and you have to take the criticism. I was disappointed with our second-half performance. I thought we lost belief in what we were doing and how we were playing the game. They weren't a team that I recognised on the pitch in the second half.

“After giving away a really poor goal, we showed a good response. For an away team, I think we had slightly edged the first half. I think we had good control in the game. In the second half, we didn't. Our defensive organisation and our pressing wasn't good enough. We became a bit disjointed, a bit passive, and we stopped passing the ball. If you do both of those things, if you keep giving the ball away and you're not defending as well as you should be as a team, then that allows the opposition to gain the ascendancy, which is what they did. The game suited them, which is why we've lost the game.”

Manager comments on goals and defending as he rallies round the Riccarton players

All three goals in the game arose following poor defending. Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland gave Jack Iredale too much time to strike what proved to be the winner, but Critchley was also unhappy with how easily Hibs wing-back Nicky Cadden repeatedly delivered crosses into the opposition penalty area.

“We've allowed the ball to come into our box too easily,” said Critchley on Iredale’s strike. “We've not got pressure on the ball outside the box or in wide areas, which we'd spoken about. We did that very well in the first half. The first goal was a really bad goal, unlike us. But other than maybe Cadden drilling one across the goal, they hadn't threatened. We defended well as a team.

“In the second half, we stopped doing that. It's a team, we take responsibility as a team. We attack together and we defend together, and we did neither of those things well enough.”

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