Neil Critchley disappointed with Hearts result but not performance as boss tells troops 'let's go again' with Rangers up next

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Gutted Neil Critchley insists Hearts deserved more after losing their 100 per cent Conference League record at home to Heidenheim.

The Jambos boss said he was disappointed with the 2-0 result but not the performance as the home side were left to rue missed chances. Second half goals from Sirlord Conteh and Jan Schoppner saw the Bundesliga side leave Gorgie with all three points and their own perfect record in tact.

But it could have been a different story had the Jambos buried one of a number of good chances before the break as Lawrence Shankland, Frankie Kent and Alan Forrest all misfired. The defeat leaves Hearts on six points from their opening three Conference League games with a trip to Cercle Brugge up next. And he said: “You have to score when you're on top. You have to take those chances.

“We weren't clinical in front of goal. And then we've got punished by two real moments of quality, the first goal in particular. I'm disappointed with the result but not the performance. We just didn't score when we were on top.

“And if we had taken our chances, then I think the game was there for us to win. But I thought the attitude of the players and mentality was good. We went right to the end. I'm just disappointed.

“Sometimes you don't get what you deserve. And I don't think we got what we deserved tonight. We played against good opposition. We went toe-to-toe in a real good competitive game, European game. Good atmosphere. And unfortunately, we've come out the wrong side tonight.”

Critchley now has to lift his players for Sunday’s trip to face Rangers at Ibrox. He said: “I watched a lot of their game tonight against Olympiacos and they've got good players. You go to Olympiacos and draw, that's a good point away from home and they've done well in Europe so far.

“So you know you're going to have to do certain things well at Ibrox if you want to win a game of football. But if we can go there and produce a similar type of performance, we don't have long between the games, but neither do they.

“We're in the same boat, aren't we? They've had to travel, so let's recover, let's prepare in the short period of time that we've got and let's go again."

Skipper Shankland suffered another frustrating night - and admitted it’s just not happening for him ion front of goal at the minute.

But he said: "A good opposition. A good challenge for us. Overall, the performance was good. I created enough chances and I should've put them away. That's disappointing.

"The first half was gung-ho at times. They were good in possession and kept us running. We came back into it in the second half and we finished strong.

“Another good chance for me at the end, but it's just not quite happening at the moment. There have been good performances under the new manager. Tonight was another one."

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