Hearts boss Neil Critchley wary of wounded Rangers after Scottish Cup shock

Neil Critchley expects bruised Rangers to be an even more challenging opponent for his Hearts side on Sunday following their Scottish Cup humiliation at the hands of Queen’s Park.

The Ibrox side have been pilloried by their supporters, with fresh calls for manager Philippe Clement to be sacked, since last weekend’s calamitous 1-0 home defeat by the Championship side all but ended their hopes of landing a domestic trophy this season.

Gers’ next game is at Tynecastle against Hearts, whom they have not lost to in 17 games since a Scottish Cup defeat five years ago.

Jambos boss Critchley, however, played down any suggestion that Rangers – who had won six out of seven games prior to the Queen’s Park debacle – might be vulnerable after Sunday’s humbling.

“No, you could say that makes it more difficult for us, because they’ll obviously be looking for a response from that game,” he told Sky Sports.

“Take that game out of the equation – and I know Rangers and their supporters won’t do that – but they’ve got excellent players and they were in a really good run of form.

“We know whenever you play Rangers it’s a tough game.”

Hearts are buoyed by an eight-game unbeaten run since their Boxing Day defeat by Hibernian, and Critchley expects both sides to come flying out the traps on Sunday.

“We’re at home, we get the energy and passion of our supporters behind us and we’re in good form ourselves,” he said.

“We want to play to our principles of the team that we want to see, be a Hearts team, play with passion, play with endeavour and commitment. You know you’re going to have to do that against Rangers.

“We’re going to have to be good without the ball, but also sometimes the best form of defence is to attack.

“We want to try and always be the dominant team and take the game to the opposition. Rangers will be looking to bounce back from their defeat last weekend and they will want to start fast as well. On paper, it makes for a really exciting game.”

Hearts appeared set for a relegation battle for most of the first half of the season but they have enjoyed an upturn under Critchley, who was appointed in October, and are now pushing towards the European places in the William Hill Premiership while they also have a Scottish Cup quarter-final at home to Dundee next month.

“Maybe some of the indifferent performances or scores, results that we had early on, that actually helped the group to come together,” said Critchley, reflecting on their revival. “I think we’ve grown.

“Sometimes it takes a little bit of time just to develop that trust between each other, but I think the belief in the group has definitely grown. We can win games in different ways and we’re unbeaten and in good form at the moment.

“Everything’s up for grabs at the moment really. We’ve spoken about that as a group. We’ve got eight league games left before it goes to the split. Our aim is to try and be in the top six and then try and push up the league as far as we can.

“We’re still in the Scottish Cup, obviously, making it to the quarter-finals, so we want to go as far as we can in that competition. We still have lots to play for.”