Hearts turned in another bright first-half display under Neil Critchley. They still ended up 4-1 losers against Celtic.
After replacing the sacked Steven Naismith, the Englishman has certainly improved performances.
To an extent, results did pick up early in his tenure.
But they remain 11th in the Premiership and have now won just one of their last six games, losing three in a row.
Critchley’s overall record now reads: W3 D1 L4.
Critchley reflects on Hearts performance
Neil Critchley was adamant the 4-1 scoreline in Celtic’s favour was harsh on his Hearts players.
He insists they gave a good account of themselves in the first half but do have themselves to blame for not taking chances and also gifting goals.
Critchley told Sky Sports: “I don’t think 4-1 was a reflection of the game. I thought that was really harsh. I thought we were excellent first half but when you’re on top you need to take your chances and we didn’t do that.
“The first goal is pivotal. You need an element of luck and they get luck for the first goal. We’re still in the game at 2-0, we had a great chance to go 2-1 and missed it. You need those things to go your way.
“We maybe showed a little bit of naivety near the end of the game. Sometimes you need to take your medicine and we opened up the pitch for them and they punished us. But I think there was a lot of positives for us and we gave a good team a real test.”
Critchley answers Hearts questions
Asked if he felt his side got the right balance between defence and attack, he said: “Yeah, I did. We limited them to very little. You know they’re always going to produce some moments because of the ability they’ve got but Craigy (Gordon) was relatively untroubled first half and we created some really good opportunities.”
He admitted the fortune of Celtic’s first goal was a frustration, adding: “Yeah a little bit because if you see the scoreline people will think ‘comfortable win for Celtic’ and I don’t think it was like that.
“But we’ve got things to improve and learn from that game but the boys kept going and showed character.”