Neil Critchley refused to point the finger at penalty sinner Lawrence Shankland – and reminded the Hearts boo boys the skipper is the reason they are in Europe.
Shankland blazed a late spot kick over the bar as with the score at 1-0 before Hearts eventually went down 2-0 to Cercle Brugge. The defeat – a fourth on the spin – leaves Hearts on six points from their four Conference League games but still comfortably in the play-off spots for a last 16 place.
But it ended in ugly fashion for Shankland who is still stuck on one goal from 20 appearances this season and last week admitted that, as things stand, he will be leaving the club next year. His fluffed penalty brought abuse from the 3100 Hearts fans crammed in behind the goal.
But Critchley said: “I’ve not spoken to him yet. I think he just needs his own space. He’s obviously devastated as you’d expect him to be, after the game in that situation. But I’ve never criticised a player for stepping up and taking a penalty or missing a penalty. That can happen. We win together and we lose together.
“I understand frustration, I get it. We’re desperately disappointed that we’ve not been able to give them a goal to celebrate or give them three points tonight. It’s just natural disappointment, we’re all disappointed.
“When you’re travelling in great numbers and you pay money and you come a long way, you have that feeling of wanting to have a good evening, as we all do. Unfortunately, that’s not happened. We wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for him, because he scored the goals that allowed us to be in this position.
“It’s a team game and it’s not just on Lawrence, it’s on the other players as well. Kenny [Vargas], Alan [Forrest], Yan [Dhanda], [Blair] Spittal, whoever that is, the forward players, [Liam] Boycie, James Wilson, Barrie McKay, they’ve all come on and had minutes. You’re looking for one of those players to score or create and we’ve not done that.”
Hearts came close to a leveller on numerous occasions after the break but Kenneth Vargas, Alan Forrest and Shankland couldn’t find the net. And Critchley said: “It’s a tough one, it feels a bit like deja vu, to be honest with you. A game of fine margins and unfortunately we’ve come out on the wrong side of it again.
“Frustrating with a capital F, yeah. If I was sitting here and we’d been well beaten and you get beat by a better team, sometimes it’s easier to take if you like.
“But we’re in the game, we’re well in the game, arguably the better team, particularly in the second half. And just in those moments that’s when you need to score, you need to take chances. We’re creating them but we’re not scoring and that’s obviously a problem.”
Critchley felt Hearts would have gone on to win the game had Shanklanbd buried his 82nd minute spot kick. He said: “I felt we were in the ascendancy and I felt if we scored at that moment… Goals change games, the pivotal moments aren’t they, the big moments. We had 10 minutes to go, we get back to 1-1, it’s properly game on then, isn’t it?”