Neil Critchley reveals Hearts' Scottish Cup penalty plan - plus updates on Devlin, Neilson, Dhanda, Drammeh

Neil Critchley explained how Hearts pre-planned for penalties after their 4-2 shootout victory over St Mirren in the Scottish Cup. The Tynecastle head coach was relieved to see his team reach the quarter-finals, where they will face Dundee, following a defiant win in Paisley.

Goals from Mikael Mandron and Calem Nieuwenhof tied the game at 1-1 after extra-time, but Hearts prevailed in the shootout thanks to conversions by James Wilson, Kenneth Vargas, Jorge Grant and James Penrice. Gerald Taylor’s effort was saved by St Mirren goalkeeper Zach Hemming, but Craig Gordon’s superb goalkeeping denied Oisin Smyth and James Scott from the spot.

Nieuwenhof appeared as a substitute after 11 months out injured and made an instant impact. He and others produced heroics to help take Hearts through, leaving Critchley to explain that penalty kicks were always part of his team’s pre-match plan. “I didn't think we were a great first half. I didn't think we were at the races, so to speak. It's not like us,” admitted the Englishman. “I didn't think we were competitive enough with the ball or without the ball. I thought we improved in the game. I thought the changes made a difference and I'm delighted for Calem to get the equaliser. Obviously, when it goes to penalties, it's that cliche, it's a lottery, but there was also a lot of skill involved.

"We practised penalties yesterday. I'm really delighted for the ones who stepped up and scored, and Craig has pulled off a couple of fantastic saves. Sometimes it's just about getting through and getting in the next round, and thankfully we've achieved that. We're not used to that. We haven't played at home for a while, so it's nice to be at home. But we've got a big game coming up on Sunday, a few league games to go before we can turn our attentions to the quarter-final again.”

Asked if he had faith in Gordon to produce amid the shootout tension, Critchley replied: “Yeah, I did, because I'd seen him yesterday, saving a few of our lads' penalties yesterday. He reads where the take is going to go, he's very intelligent at anticipating where the penalty is going to go, and he's very quick across his line. He's got brilliant reactions, brilliant reflexes, so I wasn't surprised he saved some, which is a big compliment to him. And fair play to the players who stepped up and took the penalties, because I thought they were really assured.”

Hearts midfielder Cammy Devlin was withdrawn with a head knock during normal time and defender Lewis Neilson was also substituted. “Yeah, Lewis was a dead leg, so we'll have to assess him and see how he is,” said Critchley. “And then Cammy was just not feeling quite right. He said he was fine, and I kept asking him and he was putting his thumb up, so we just took him off as a precaution.”

Spanish forward Musa Drammeh was omitted from the Hearts squad along with midfielder Yan Dhanda. “It was just a squad one [with Drammeh], that was it,” stated Critchley. “Yan [Dhanda] just had a little issue with his hip flexor yesterday in training, so that was more of a precaution.”

Critchley changed Hearts’ formation to a 4-4-2 diamond early in the second half, which helped them gain more momentum on an uneven surface. “We just felt like it was difficult to play on the pitch tonight. It wasn't easy, and we know that when you play with backward momentum, St Mirren are very good at pressing forward and are very athletic at the top end of the pitch,” said the manager.#

“It's hard then to play passes into midfield because the pitch is quite lively. So we thought if we're going to go forward, it's better to have two runners on the last line rather than one, so we put two up there. I felt that helped us to build more momentum, and we also got very dangerous on the break, on transition moments. So I felt that that helped, although I still would have liked for us to use the ball better. I think you can see we're a team still in transition, still learning, still understanding what it is we're trying to do and how we want to be as a team. And that just takes time.”

Norwegian midfielder Sander Kartum made his Hearts debut as a substitute as part of the changes. Another new recruit, Michael Steinwender, replaced Neilson. “It's not easy for Michael to come into a game like that,” acknowledged Critchley. “He's probably never played in that type of game, but I thought he showed a real commanding presence, real assurance, calm on the ball, defensively sound, made good decisions.

“Sander showed his quality, his composure, breaking, left foot, playing forward, trying to release the runners. And again, he's only trained for about two weeks, so it was good for him fitness-wise to go to extra time. Him and Michael, I'm sure they'll benefit from that, but we've got a few aching bodies in there, so we'll have to rest, recover and get ready for game on Sunday [against Rangers] now.”

Critchley insisted that taking captain Lawrence Shankland and striker Elton Kabangu off 15 minutes before the shootout was not a risk. “No, because we're bringing [Jorge] Granty on and Kenny [Vargas] on. We discussed that, so we thought that was sort of for like, really, that Granty and Kenny would take penalties. That did come into our consideration, and we also thought that Granty would get us some control in the game, and I thought he did that, and we just didn't quite do enough in the second half of extra time. We got into some promising situations, but didn't capitalise on them.”

Hearts are now determined to progress further in the Scottish Cup and reach another final at Hampden Park. “That's the aim, yeah, that's the aim,” said Critchley. “The draw's opened up a little bit, and now we're at home, so we've got to try and use that to our advantage. We want to go all the way, and the club's had a few near misses in the last few years, and we want to be successful. We're all desperate to get to Hampden and lift the trophy if we can.”

Finally, Critchley offered further praise for Nieuwenhof scoring a vital goal after such a long absence. “It’s brilliant for Callum, made up for him. That's why we put him on as well, because he's shown that in a game recently that we played behind closed doors. He's got this ability to drift into the box, and it's no coincidence that I think the ball dropped for him, just by having an extra body up there.

“He got a little bit low, but the fact that he kept it down and it's gone through someone's legs, I was made up for him. He's been out for a long time and he's worked ever so hard, and I thought he showed some composure on the ball as well when he came on. We are really pleased with Calem. He's got that technical quality, and he's got composure in front of goal.

“He just seems to ghost into positions, and the ball fell for him, and it was a great finish. His timing for someone who's been out for so long was a credit to him. He's trained himself into that, and that's another example to all the players, the training, how we train, that's where you get the benefit of it on the pitch.”