Neil Critchley's vow on Hearts' Brechin banana skin, Zander Clark, Elton Kabangu and Calem Nieuwenhof

Glebe Park, its famous hedge and the humble town of Brechin will be new surroundings for Hearts coach Neil Critchley on Friday night. The Scottish Cup is a fresh competition for the Englishman, who is familiar with its equivalent south of the border, the FA Cup. He did research and homework on Brechin City and is confident he knows what to expect from this fourth-round tie.

It is a game he cannot afford to lose as manager of a Premiership team visiting Highland League opponents. The fifth tier of Scotland’s football pyramid embarrassed Hearts in 2021 when, as a Championship side, they lost to tiny Brora Rangers in this competition. Critchley believes experiences in England managing Blackpool and coaching youth sides at Liverpool and Crewe Alexandra will stand him in good stead.

“At Blackpool, we played against non-league teams. We played at Eastbourne Borough on astroturf,” he recalled. “There were Youth Cup days as well at Liverpool and even back to my Crewe days. We had some teams that were lower down. The expectation there is to win. It's a different feeling. It's a different type of game. You have to handle that psychological difference on Friday night. Again, that's what this competition brings.

“I’ve not actually ever been to Brechin. I've seen them play there. I've been watching videos and I've seen the pitch and stuff like that - the surroundings and the infamous hedge. I've seen that. I'm looking forward to going. I like these games. It's what the cup's about. Hopefully we're just on the right end of the scoreline.

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“I don't judge the game any differently than if we were playing Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, whoever. It's just the next game, so we always pick the team that we think gives us the best chance of winning the game. We look at the last game. We played well. What did we do well? We're going into this game.

“Do we need to change the shape? Do we need to slightly adjust personnel? Therefore, that means it might be better playing him rather than him. Then we speak and we have an open conversation. At the end of the day, I pick the team and hopefully we pick the right team.”

One decision he must make is in goal after second-choice keeper Zander Clark signed an extended Hearts contract. He has not appeared competitively since August and has yet to play under Critchley, with Craig Gordon the established first-choice. “It's not easy [to change goalkeeper] because obviously there's not 10 outfield players,” remarked the manager.

“You're fighting for one position and Craig has been fantastic since I've been here. His performances have been outstanding. I get to judge Zander on a daily basis in training, and I say that to the players all the time. You get a chance to audition every day. Training is really important. How are we training? Zander trains fantastically well, 100 per cent every day. He stays out afterwards. He helps out with all the extras. He has no ego. He's a great guy.

“I’ve seen some of his performances from last season as well. He was in the Scotland squad and doing brilliantly well, so I'm fully aware of the capabilities of Zander and the qualities he possesses at this moment in time. He's also behind Scotland's No.1, and Craig's been fantastic, so I'm in a fortunate position.”

“I say to the players, sometimes they can make those decisions more difficult by how they train. The ones who are out of the team have got to train really well and give me an issue, give me a problem. If they get an opportunity to come off the bench or start a game, then give me a problem in terms of picking the team. If you look at the team, it's been quite consistent, but there have been some changes from game to game. That's sometimes tactical and that's sometimes physical reasons. The Brechin game is no different.”

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Recent signing Elton Kabangu is in contention to play from the start after an impressive debut as a substitute against Aberdeen on Sunday. “I thought he came on and made an impact, yes,” agreed Critchley. “Obviously, he nearly scored with a header. He actually nearly scored when, I think it was the rebound from the corner when we might have hit the post. He swivelled and hit one and it might have been handball. James [Wilson] nearly put the rebound in.

“There was another one that came across the box and he collected it inside the six-yard box. Obviously, it just didn't quite fall for him. He showed the threat that he could be in a short period of time. We've just got to get that balance right. Elton wasn't coming here off a lot of match minutes and game exposure, so we've got to try and just ease him in but make sure he's getting some exposure to make sure he can impact our team going forward.”

Australian midfielder Calem Nieuwenhof has a slight chance of being involved after 10 months out with a hamstring injury. Critchley stressed he will need time to reach previous performance levels. “Calem’s getting closer all the time,” he said. “I'd say the last six weeks we've been getting him up to speed in training. He's doing extra physical work more than the players that have been training and playing. I have to say, day-by-day or week-by-week, he's looking better all the time.

“The next stage for him now is to be part of the squad and get back to some minutes on the pitch. I know people spoke really well of him last season and the journey that he took and how he improved and progressed. I think Calem will probably need to go on that sort of journey again because of the length of time he's been out. It's just how we manage him in the next weeks and months ahead.”

As ever when entering a cup competition, players know the value of the final prize. The fourth round is five matches away from the trophy itself. This week at Riccarton, Critchley checked who among his squad had lifted major silverware. Craig Gordon has more medals than he can could, while Clark and recent signing Jamie McCart won both national cups with St Johnstone in 2021. There are not many others.

“I didn't actually ask them to put their hands up because I thought there might not be many,” smiled Critchley. “Obviously, Zander, he's not shy in putting his hand up straight away. He's not shy in reminding us of his cup exploits. I know there's one, maybe two more. There's not many and that's an incentive for the group. You want to win things, you want to be successful in your career.

“We're ambitious and I'm no different. We'd love nothing more than to get to Hampden and pick up a piece of silverware. But I promise you, Friday night, we know what we're going to face. We know it's going to be a tough game and we need to be right at it.”