Neil Critchley has called on Hearts fans to unite and bring the Boxing Day battle fever for the Edinburgh derby.
The Gorgie Ultras stayed away from Sunday’s win over St Johnstone in protest and recent poor results and the club board. And they missed a rare Jambos win that lifted Critchley’s men off the bottom of the Premiership table ahead on Thursday’s Edinburgh derby against Hibs.
The black-clad fan group are expected to be in their usual spot in the Gorgie Stand behind the goal for the second capital clash of the season. And the head coach has called on all the home punters to sing from the hymn sheet in order to get Tynecastle back to it’s intimidating best when their nearest neighbours come calling the day after Christmas. “It’s massively important,” he told Sky Sports. “I thought the support on Sunday against St Johnstone was excellent. They were right behind the team and that made a real difference.
“We’ve got some young players on the pitch and we need everyone together. We need to show what we’re about as a football club, our values and what we represent. It’s important that we show that in the stands and on the pitch.
“It’s a massive help when we’re all fighting and pushing in the same direction. And when we’ve got real alignment then Tynecastle is a tough place to go to.”
The pair drew 1-1 back in October, when a late leveller off the bench from teenage hot shot James Wilson cancelled out Mykola Kukharevych’s scrambled opener. It was the Hibees going through the relegation ringer then, but Critchley always felt they weren’t as poor as results made it seem.
He explained: “I think they are a tough prospect because when I watched them back in October, I thought moments were going against them. I didn’t think their performances were reflective of the results they were picking up.
“Now they’re in a better moment. But if you look at the points that we’ve collected whilst we’ve been here, we’re doing quite well. But we want to do better.
“We’re close int he league, the points are close and it’s quite congested down the bottom of the table. We’ve got a busy period coming up.”