Yan Dhanda admits Hearts players' anger
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The fallout from Hearts’ UEFA Conference League exit has been extensive. Players shouldered some stinging criticism at full-time on Thursday evening following their 2-2 draw with Petrocub as fans vented frustrations. Players were angry at the outcome as a quite horrible season shows little sign of abating.
“Yeah, definitely. I think it's just disappointing,” admitted midfielder Yan Dhanda. “We wanted to qualify, we go 2-1 up and I thought we had. Obviously, it's just not our luck with the late penalty. The game goes away from us and we don't qualify. But there's no time to dwell on it now. We've just got to look forward to Sunday and put it right in the league after last week.”
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Hide AdHearts lost 1-0 at 10-man Kilmarnock last weekend and now host St Johnstone in the latest episode of their Premiership survival fight. The squad would be forgiven if they felt punch drunk after 16 losses from 26 games in all competitions this season.
“Yeah, I think on Thursday we stuck to it,” said Dhanda. “We had to keep shifting the ball. We had to be patient. We go 2-1 up and obviously it's another disappointing night. But we stick together, we're a strong team and we have to be there for each other. We know it's not going to be easy but it's a big game on Sunday. It's a chance to bounce back after a difficult result last week.
“We need the fans to be with us. They help us when they're with us. Obviously it's disappointing but, if they're frustrated, then they're going to show it. Like I said, we have to stick together like we do as a team. We have a gameplan. We have to work on what we've worked on all week for the game. So we did.
“We had to keep shifting the ball. Obviously, in the first half, the chances didn't fall. In the second half, they did. We shifted it from left to right, put balls in the box and we got two goals. It's just disappointing that they get a penalty and then we draw the game.
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Hide Ad“Sunday is very important because we had a disappointing result last week but we'll have a game plan for St Johnstone and we've got to stick to it. We've got to stick with each other because you have difficult periods in football. This is one of them but a couple of wins and everything changes. So we've just got to focus on the next game and beating St Johnstone.”
Exiting European competition leaves Hearts to focus solely on domestic business. Dhanda does not see that as a good thing in any way, though. “No, not really. If you ask me, I want to play in Europe. It's where you want to be,” he remarked. “I don't think it's a good thing not being in the competition because you want to play in the best games against the best teams. It's disappointing but now we have to focus on Sunday against St Johnstone and win.”
The Englishman had to wait several weeks to return to Hearts’ starting line-up and finally reclaimed a place against Petrocub. He hopes his individual contribution was enough for head coach Neil Critchley to keep faith with him.
“Yes, I've tried to be as positive as I could,” he said. “It's a fairly new position for me so I'm just learning each time. I know when I'm on the pitch I'll give everything and try and go forward as much as possible. It's just keep learning and keep getting better and learning the new role the manager wants me to play.”