Neil Critchley's direct comments on Hearts' loss to Heidenheim and preparing for Rangers

Neil Critchley offered a philosophical assessment of Hearts’ performance following the UEFA Conference League defeat by Heidenheim at Tynecastle Park. The German Bundesliga club secured three points to effectively secure a knockout round play-off place next year, but Hearts finished the game knowing they had their opponents rocked at different points during the evening.

Second-half headers from Sirlord Conteh and Jan Schoppner facilitated a 2-0 victory which looked more comfortable than it actually was. Hearts were the stronger and more threatening side in the first 45 minutes and should have been at least 1-0 ahead by the interval. They were ultimately left to rue missing some decent scoring chances.

“That's the one thing to take away from this game tonight: You have to score when you're on top. You have to take those chances,” said Critchley, the Tynecastle head coach. “We weren't clinical in front of goal and then we've got punished by two real moments of quality, the first goal in particular. I'm disappointed with the result but not the performance. I thought we played just equally as well tonight as we did against Omonoia. We just didn't score when we were on top.

“If we had taken our chances, then I think the game was there for us to win. I thought the attitude of the players and mentality was good. We went right to the end. I'm just disappointed. Sometimes you don't get what you deserve and I don't think we got what we deserved tonight.”

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

A strong first-half display by Hearts gave way to a more stifled performance after the break. “When you're playing against good teams and good opposition, sometimes they change the way that they're building up or they change the position of a player on the pitch,” said Critchley. “They can gain a little bit of control and then you have to adjust and think about how you're going to adapt to that moment. That was the message to the players tonight before the game.

“We have to adapt to the way we think on the pitch because this is a team that changes and changes in-game. If you don't quite get your pressing right, they're good enough then to play through you or gain control in the first phase. It's not easy just to keep pressing and pressing and pressing for 90 minutes. Sometimes you have to control.

“The goals have not come through them playing through us and gaining control and pushing us back in their own half. The first goal was just a moment of real quality, a counter-attack. It just dropped and the lad's broken. He's crossed it and he's running. It was a great goal. It was nothing to do with them gaining control of the game. It was a counter-attack moment.

“I thought we were excellent after that. I thought our response was really good. I felt we deserved more from the game. We played against good opposition. We went toe-to-toe in a real good competitive game, European game in a good atmosphere. Unfortunately, we've come out on the wrong side tonight.”

Hearts feel they are still in a strong position in the Conference League table, whether they sit 12th out of 36 teams. The top 24 will progress to the next phase of the tournament. “Winning tonight would have helped but if we keep producing that level of performance, then we'll win games of football. The test for us is to keep showing that mentality, keep showing the same attitude, keep showing the ability that we showed on the ball as well. We produced some really good moves, good moments. The only thing missing tonight was the final bit.”

Hearts now travel to Rangers for Sunday’s Premiership encounter before the international break. “I watched a lot of Rangers’ game tonight against Olympiakos and they've got good players. You go to Olympiacos and draw, that's a good point away from home and they've done well in Europe so far,” observed Critchley.

“So you know you're going to have to do certain things well at Ibrox if you want to win a game of football. But if we can go there and produce a similar type of performance, we don't have long between the games, but neither do they. We're in the same boat, aren't we? They've had to travel, so let's recover, let's prepare in the short period of time that we've got and let's go again.”

Asked if he will make changes to his team for Sunday, Critchley did not give much away. “We'll think about it, yeah, we'll think about it. I've got 48 hours to decide that. We'll see. I think lots of the players played well tonight. I thought there was lots of good performances.”

The Heidenheim head coach Frank Schmidt admitted his team rode their luck at times at Tynecastle. “It was a difficult first half, so well done to Hearts for that,” he said. “They made it really difficult for us. Hearts played very well. We couldn’t hold onto the ball and we were late to second balls.

“They really put us under pressure. I also think after a couple of less-than-ideal results, our confidence was not so high. We managed to get more involved in the second half, we were defensively strong and more clinical in attack. It was good play for us to make it 1-0 and, after the second goal, the game was pretty much over.”