Neil Critchley, Hearts’ head coach, felt a point was a fair reflection of the William Hill Premiership clash with Aberdeen at Pittodrie which ended in a 0-0 draw.
He told Hearts TV: “It was a really tight game as the scoreline suggests. I thought we pressed and went after them in the first half and won the ball a lot, but we were wasteful when we won the ball back.
“If you do that you run the risk of opening up the door at the other end, which we did, once or twice, and they (Aberdeen) had a couple of opportunities when they got behind us, but we sorted that out at half-time.
“In the second half I thought we were in the ascendancy, pushing them back, and took control of the game. Craig (Gordon) was rarely threatened and I thought we had good opportunities.
“None better than the penalty and we nearly nicked the game. So it is another clean sheet, that is three on the bounce, and it gives us a basis to go and win games.”
Focusing on the penalty, Critchley (pictured) said you receive a reward for putting the ball in the box and he stressed that his men must be more progressive, Hearts must pass the ball forward more, the players have to run forward more and they have to put the ball more behind the opposition defence in the box.
He said: “In truth, we did not do that well enough in the game. We did it slightly better as the game went on and that led to the penalty. Jorge Grant has scored penalties for us before, and it was not a bad penalty, it was a terrific save, to be honest.”
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