Neil Critchley hailed Elton Kabangu after the on-loan frontman hit a second half double on his full debut to ensure Hearts avoided a Scottish Cup shock at Brechin.
The Royal Union Saint-Gilloise frontman struck twice and set up another as the Jambos fought back to beat the Highland League leaders who had led through Scott Bright’s wonder strike at a packed Glebe Park. Kabangu sealed a loan switch from the Belgian club at the start of the window – with the Tynecastle having the option to make that permanent in the summer – but his debut was held up by government red tape. But after finally being let loose from the start, after a brief appearance off the bench against Aberdeen last weekend, Critchley reckons Hearts fans should be excited.
He said: “Elton showed what he’s about. He’s a finisher around the goal and inside the penalty area. He will bring energy and plenty of enthusiasm and endeavour at the top end of the pitch. He’s hard to handle for 90 minutes. He’s got good balance between speed and endurance so he can keep running for long periods and that means it’s hard for defenders to keep him quiet.
“I’m sure the fans are excited by what they’ve seen of hm tonight. And coming on against Aberdeen I thought he made a difference.
“The start for him has been positive. But he’s not played a lot of football for a period and it will take him time to adapt to the style of play and his new team mates. Even this week we’ve been showing him. Different things about how we defend, it’s different from his last club.
“And where the runs and what we want him to do in attack. He has a lot to think about and we don’t want to overload him. We want him to relax into our environment and hopefully he will flourish.”
Yan Dhanda levelled the match after St Johnstone loanee Bright’s screamer. An own goal from ex-Jambo Kevin McHattie edged Hearts ahead before Kabangu’s double. Critchley said: “It’s job done. It was a good goal from Yan, that settled us down.
“Scoring soon into the second half settled us down, we played some nice football. We’ve done the job and we’re into the next round.
“It was a great strike for them but up until that we’d been doing OK in the game. The longer it goes at 1-0 the nerves and anxiety grows, we needed that moment of quality to get us back in the game. Once we settled down, remembered how to play good football we started to make things more comfortable for ourselves.”