Neil Critchley urges Hearts to ‘attack’ final phase of season

Neil Critchley has challenged his on-form Hearts side to “attack” the last phase of the season with renewed purpose as they bid to secure a place in the top six of the William Hill Premiership and reach the final of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup.

The Jambos’ next four games in particular promise to be critical to how their campaign pans out as they face three league matches before the split against Celtic, Dundee United and Motherwell and then a mouth-watering semi-final against Aberdeen.

“They’re vitally important games,” the manager said of the run facing his side. “I think the break has just given everyone a chance to breathe a little bit.

“There’s only seven, eight weeks left, it’ll fly by and we’re ready to attack the last period of the season. Nine, hopefully ten games left, maximum. That’s it.

“So we’re ready to go. We’re fresh, we’re positive and we’re looking forward to a really exciting end to the season.”

Hearts are currently sixth, two points below Dundee United and a point above Motherwell, as they strive to make the top six and remain in contention for a European place after the split.

“I looked at the league for about two minutes and then decided not to look at it because there are numerous permutations and I gave up trying to work them all out, so I thought that’s pointless,” he said.

“We just have to concentrate on us. We have three games and who knows how many points we’re going to need. We have a tough run of games but so do a lot of the other teams around us and we obviously have teams around us that we’re due to play.”

Critchley is braced for the “toughest game you can face in Scotland” when Hearts visit Celtic on Saturday but he draws some encouragement from having been at Celtic Park on a scouting mission when Rangers pulled off a rare away win against the champions a fortnight ago.

“I’d never been to Celtic Park before, it was a brilliant experience, what a great stadium,” he said.

“We will need a top performance from everyone. You see Rangers and how they approached the game and the success that they got from that. You’re hopeful of something similar, even if you’re maybe going to do it in a slightly different way.”

Hearts have lost Gerald Taylor to a knee injury but key duo Jamie McCart and Cammy Devlin are both back in contention after their recent lay-offs.

Critchley feels his on-form side, who spent the first half of the season battling to get away from the bottom of the league, are better equipped now to deal with a trip to Celtic than at any point this season.

“Just through the natural progression of the group being together for a longer period of time, the work we did in January, the group have grown, our belief has grown,” he said. “We go there in a positive frame of mind.”