New boss Neil Critchley admits Hearts debut could not have gone any better

Posted Sunday, October 20, 2024 by PA

Hearts boss Neil Critchley admits he could not have dreamt of a better debut after the stunning 4-0 win over St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership.

After finishing third last season, Hearts failed to win in their opening eight league games but that winless run ended in style on Critchley’s managerial debut.

Goals from Kenneth Vargas, Daniel Oyegoke, James Wilson and Blair Spittal secured a much-needed three points that moved Hearts off the bottom and above rivals Hibernian ahead of next week’s Edinburgh derby.

“Probably not, no,” Critchley replied when asked if his debut could have gone better.

“When you go to bed last night, go to sleep, you dream of a start like this, scoring a few goals and keeping a clean sheet. I’m delighted for the players, they’ve been fantastic this week, so receptive to the work that we’ve done. I think there were signs of that on the pitch and to keep a clean sheet, I think that’s really important as well.

“I’d say that the way that the players have, in a short period of time, taken our ideas onto the pitch. I thought we started the game really well, with good energy, kept the ball well, passed the ball well, got into good areas of the pitch. We were threatening and the first goal was massive, we haven’t scored the first goal this season.”

Critchely arrived to a baptism of fire with three massive games in a week with a Europa Conference League clash against Omonia on Thursday before travelling to Easter Road.

Hibs surrendered two goals to Dundee United to drop below Hearts and Critchley believes his side will be bolstered from moving off the bottom of the table.

“Yeah, it’s a real confidence boost, you can see that in the players,” he admitted.

“There’s an element of relief, I think. It’s good to get that first win under our belts, and it was an important day today. You don’t want that run to continue and keep going. But, look, we’re in for training tomorrow morning, and we’ve got a really brilliant game to look forward to now on Thursday night.”

St Mirren were poor as they fell to their third consecutive defeat and Stephen Robinson was left questioning the application of some of his summer signings.

He added: “We’ve got a lot of new players who maybe don’t know the parameters and standards that we work to. That’s on me because I’ve had them for long enough and they should know that. Simply, those players won’t play and I’ll just play the players that I trust to do the basics right.

“We worked on patterns in training but we didn’t see any of that today – I need to take responsibility for that. As a group, we are making so many poor decisions and you’ll lose games.”