Hearts have the chance to progress in the UEFA Europa Conference League if they beat Moldovan side Petrocub at Tynecastle on Thursday, and head coach, Neil Critchley, said: “It’s in our hands.”
The backroom team have looked at the permutations and scenarios surrounding the game but have decided to concentrate on doing their best to win against a side which has already been eliminated.
Critchley (pictured) expects a tough fixture and he said: “There are no give-me’s in European football, they (Petrocub) are there for a reason and, if you look at their recent results, they’ve been in very close games.
“If we’re expecting to turn up and win then it won’t happen. You have to earn everything you get on the pitch and we’ll have to enforce the way we want to play onto them.
“We have to make sure our cause is greater than theirs and that has to be reflected on the pitch.”
The Jambos are desperate to make the later stages of the competition but they come into the fixture on the back of a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock against ten men in the William Hill Premiership.
But the Men in Maroon know that three points could guarantee European football after Christmas and the head coach said: “We’ve obviously reflected on what happened and how we played at the weekend and we need to do a lot better than we did (at Kilmarnock). I’m really looking forward to seeing our response.”
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