Neil Critchley comments on Hearts fans' chants at Lawrence Shankland as he reacts to defeat at Cercle Brugge

Hearts head coach Neil Critchley was quick to defend captain Lawrence Shankland after he missed a penalty in Thursday’s European loss to Cercle Brugge. With the hosts leading 1-0 in Belgium, Shankland fired his spot-kick over the bar, prompting some travelling fans to break into a chant of “Shankland, Shankland, get to F***.”

Cercle were leading 1-0 through Malamine Efekele at the time and Hearts pressed to equalise before winning a penalty through Edgaras Utkus’ handball offence on 78 minutes. After a few minutes’ delay and a touchline review by the referee, Shankland bravely stepped up despite only scoring one goal this season. He looked distraught after missing, which was compounded when Gary Magnée struck a late second to complete a 2-0 scoreline.

Shankland is in the final year of his Hearts contract and has refused two offers to extend. He is expected to leave at the end of the season. His performances have not reached the standards of the last two seasons, when he scored 28 and 31 goals for Hearts respectively.

“I understand frustration, I get it,” said Critchley when asked about the reaction from Hearts fans, more than 3,000 of whom were inside the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges. “We're desperately disappointed that we've not been able to give them a goal to celebrate or give them three points tonight. It's just natural disappointment, we're all disappointed. When you're travelling in great numbers and you pay money and you come a long way, you have that feeling of wanting to have a good evening, as we all do. Unfortunately, that's not happened.

READ MORE: Report and player ratings from Cercle Brugge 2-0 Hearts

“We wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for him [Shankland], because he scored the goals that allowed us to be in this position and finish where we did last season. It's a team game and it's not just on Lawrence, it's on the other players as well. Kenny [Vargas], Alan [Forrest], Yan [Dhanda], [Blair] Spittal, whoever that is, the forward players, [Liam] Boycie, James Wilson, Barrie McKay, they've all come on and had minutes. You're looking for one of those players to score or create and we've not done that.”

Critchley felt Hearts could have gone on to win had they managed to equalise at that point. “I do, yeah, because I think second half, when their energy died a little bit and we knew that, they'd leave us space on the pitch and we started to pass the ball better and control the game better,” he said.

“We started to open them up and get into some really good positions in the final third. I felt that was coming, even though they had a chance maybe on the break. They hit the bar but that was just after our penalty miss. I felt we were in the ascendancy and I felt if we scored at that moment - goals change games. They are the pivotal moments aren't they? The big moments. We had 10 minutes to go, we get back to 1-1, it's properly game on then, isn't it?”

The Englishman said he didn’t say anything to Shankland in the away dressing-room afterwards. “Nothing at the moment, I think he just needs his own space. He's obviously as you'd expect him to be after the game in that situation. But I've never criticised a player for stepping up and taking a penalty or missing a penalty. That can happen. We win together and we lose together.”

Critchley praised the Hearts supporters in general for following their team in numbers to Belgium. “t was unbelievable. I've never experienced something like that before. It was overwhelming,” he remarked. “Fantastic support, which makes the disappointment even more when you lose because you know what it means to them. It's the worst feeling in the world when you can't deliver something for so many people, which it means so much more.

“It’s frustrating with a capital ‘F’, yeah. If I was sitting here and we'd been well beaten and you get beat by a better team, sometimes it's easier to take if you like. But we're in the game, we're well in the game, arguably the better team, particularly in the second half. And just in those moments that's when you need to score, you need to take chances. We're creating them but we're not scoring and that's obviously a problem.”

Critchley left Blair Spittal on the bench and selected Yan Dhanda in midfield instead. He explained that choice. “Just freshness. Blair has played practically nearly every minute of every game since I've been in charge. No, just freshness,” he said. “I think we made three changes tonight, just to bring some energy to the team, hopefully. Something different.

“We wanted to play Yan inside the game and we know that they press with the wing-backs against our full-backs. Sometimes they go three defenders against the front four and we nearly got them in the first half when Alan slid the ball down the side for Kenny. He out-run his defender and that's the space that they leave you. Shanks, unfortunately, with his little flick at the front post, it goes just wide. You need one of them to trickle in for you. It was a little bit of a tactical decision, but more out of freshness than anything.”

The Cercle coach Miron Muslic gave an honest assessment of the game and admitted he thought Hearts could have taken a point home from Belgium. “It’s a very emotional night and very emotional game for me. Game 100 as Cercle head coach. We are always a fair opponent. I think Hearts deserved a goal. They deserved also a point,” he conceded. “Especially in second half and especially after the substitution of Christiaan Ravych, they pushed. And they had one big opportunity in open play and also, if you miss then a penalty, then you know you're unlucky.

“So I think Hearts were pushing and they deserved also the equaliser and the draw potentially. But that's football. I think we also deserved a little bit more on Sunday against Standard than the 0-1. And in the end we had some position threats second half. I think also the possibility to decide the game earlier for us so we don't go into the madness of the last 10, 15 minutes because everything can happen.

“You see then, even though we defended very well, a moment like this, the handball and the penalty with Edgaras can just change the game like this. So I'm happy with the result. It's a good result for us right now. We are on seven points in a Conference League. That's a huge step for us. I told you before guys and I was not joking in the pre-match press conference when I said that my colleague Neil [Critchley] is doing a very good job. I told him this also before the game.

“You could also see we changed today eight players, they changed today three players so they keep their structure, their rhythm. It's not easy changing eight players, it does something to a team. Even though every single player today was ready, I saw them very strong creating some moments. I think we defended it well, they had this big chance with Shankland in the first half and then second half all in, they pushed. They also realised we changed a little bit something defensively. They smelled a little bit of blood and then they've been honest I think. I really mean it, they deserved a point.”