Neil Critchley’s attention turns to the European stage after getting a league win against St Mirren in his first match in charge of Hearts.
The Jambos were impressive as Critchley took his Tynecastle bow, switching up to an old-school 4-4-2 formation which seemed to get the best out of the likes of Kenneth Vargas, Blair Spittal, Yan Dhanda and James Penrice.
Hitherto talisman Lawrence Shankland still cut a frustrated figure, despite providing a quality assist for Vargas’ opener, and now would be a great time to return to scoring form with Cypriots Omonia the opponents tonight ahead of facing Hibs in Sunday’s Edinburgh derby.
Despite their domestic struggles, Hearts got their Conference League campaign off to a brilliant start with an away victory over Dinamo Minsk.
And six points from six would provide them with the perfect platform to try to go and reach the play-off round ahead of some more winnable games, mixed in with some tougher ones.
A win would also keep the good feeling around Critchley’s start to life in Gorgie going after that Buddies display started to win some fans round.
Hearts team to face Omonia Nicosia in Conference League
Hearts starting XI: Gordon, Forrester, Kent, Rowles, Kingsley, Devlin, Boateng, Spittal, Forrest, Shankland
Subs: Clark, Halkett, Oyegoke, Grant, McKay, Dhanda, Wilson, Tait, Boyce, Penricem Sandilands, Salazar
Omonia Nicosia starting XI: Fabiano, Khammas, Helander, Coulibaly, Diounkou, Erakovic, Maric, Charalampous, W. Semedo, Stepinski, Simic
Subs: Uzoho, Kyriakidis, Kitsos, Kakoulli, Ewandro, Masouras, Lang, Panagiotou, Kousoulos, Loizou, Neophytou, Saidou