Neil Critchley pleased with ‘fight’ shown by Hearts to take point against Dons

Neil Critchley praised Hearts for a “fantastic” response to their recent troubles as they fought back to end a four-game losing streak in a 1-1 draw at home to Aberdeen.

The Jambos were overtaken by city rivals Hibernian at the foot of the Premiership on Saturday and looked in danger of further woe when Dons midfielder Leighton Clarkson opened the scoring shortly after the hosts had lost key defenders Stephen Kingsley and Frankie Kent to injury.

But Hearts rallied to claim a much-needed point when Musa Drammeh’s header was diverted into the net by Aberdeen defender Nicky Devlin in the 62nd minute.

“I thought we were fantastic, particularly in the second half,” said boss Critchley. “I thought we started the game well, I thought we were the better team.

“Obviously two changes early in the game that we had to make disrupts the flow and rhythm of the game. They scored with their first attempt at goal, so it would be easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves in terms of ‘here we go again’.

“But I said to the players at half-time, we have two choices: moan and sulk about it, or we fight. We certainly fought in the second half and the point is the least we deserved.”

Early indications are that Kingsley could be facing a lengthy lay-off after he was stretchered off in clear distress with a hamstring injury.

“He’s in the dressing room now, he’s on crutches and we’ll have to scan him in the next 48 hours,” said Critchley. “Fingers crossed it’s not as bad as it looks.”

Critchley kept faith with captain Lawrence Shankland and was pleased with the striker’s display after he was barracked by a section of Hearts’ 3000-strong travelling support on Thursday night following a costly penalty miss in the 2-0 Conference League defeat against Cercle Brugge.

“Easy decision really,” he said. “I spoke to him yesterday, gave him 24 hours to clear his head. And I just said to him, ‘look, you’re the captain, you lead by example, you lead the line brilliantly well, and as long as we see that effort and endeavour and the commitment at the top end of the pitch, then there’s a lot more to your game than goals’. I think he showed that again.

“He’s a strong-willed boy. Obviously, it’s going to affect anyone, particularly the run he’s on. He could feel sorry for himself in this situation, it’s a real test for him, but he’ll come through it and he’ll get our support.”

It was a third game in a row without a win for Aberdeen but manager Jimmy Thelin – who made six changes to add “freshness” to his team – felt a draw was the right outcome.

“I think it’s a fair result when the game is over,” he said. “We have some parts when we were 1-0 and we could do better maybe, but also Hearts did well.”

Thelin is waiting to learn if goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov, who went off at half-time with an apparent hamstring strain, will be fit for Wednesday’s visit of Celtic. “Let’s see tomorrow, we need to make a real check on him first,” said the Swede.