Neil Critchley was left frustrated after Heart of Midlothian drew 0-0 with Aberdeen at Pittodrie, seeing Jorge Grant miss a stoppage-time penalty.
The Hearts head coach admitted it was an even game in the Granite City.
He spoke about the penalty, Elton Kabangu and Jamie McCart, the attacking dynamic, plus the transfer latest on Lawrence Shankland and Kye Rowles.
Read or listen to everything he said.
You're obviously massively frustrated just at the end there, so close to winning it, two points dropped?
It feels like that because of what happened right at the end of the game. In truth, it was a very even game, a point was probably fair, but obviously when you have a penalty and the last kick of the game to win it, then it probably does feel like two points possibly lost. But credit to Aberdeen, I thought it was a really tight game, even game. Both teams playing with a good mentality on the pitch, both teams trying to go for the game, not a lot of chances really at either end. It's another clean sheet for us, which is a real positive, and it's a point away from home.
What did you say to Jorge afterwards?
He's obviously really disappointed, his head's down, but he's got the courage to take it, he wanted it straight away, and he's a very good technician. I have to give credit to the goalkeeper. I thought it was more of a goalkeeper save than a penalty miss, in my opinion.
Did Elton want to take it as well?
I think there were a few. I think Kenny [Vargas] and Elton maybe wanted to step up and take the penalty, which is a positive. But Jorge, you know, he's taken penalties before for us and scored. So, it happens, unfortunately.
You mentioned the clean sheets, how big a focus has that been, because it's the first time three in a row in over a year?
Yeah, it should have been four, in truth, and I could be sitting here now, we could have won the last four games on the bounce, really. We probably left a few points on the pitch. But, yeah, it is a positive, and they had one or two moments in the first half where they got behind our defence. We were pressing, we were on the front foot, and we won the ball back a lot. But from good pressing situations where we regained the ball, we turned it over.
Or when they got through us once, they managed to break our line, which is the risk you take. You risk pressing the ball to win the ball back, but if they play through the press or go over it, then you risk being vulnerable at the other end of the pitch. That thing happened once or twice in the first half, something we sorted out at half-time, and we were much more solid and compact without the ball in the second half, which gave us a really good basis to control a lot of the game, I felt.
They didn't really trouble us in getting to our penalty area, and Craig's had a really quiet second half.
What do you think of the centre-backs?
I thought they were outstanding. I thought Jamie McCart was fantastic. There's just that one moment in the first half, and that's because he's not used to playing in how we play and how we defend. He's slightly different to how we asked our back four to play, or the whole team to play. He stepped in with his centre forward once and left a space behind him, and we don't defend like that, but he wouldn't know that yet.
When we spoke to him at half-time, he picked it up straight away. He wasn't stepping in, he was holding the line better, and I thought him and Halks were a really good partnership, and I thought they were brilliant today, both of them.
Elton looked a threat?
Yeah, he did when he came on. He had a header that the goalkeeper saved, and there was one or two other moments, I think Kenny got in down the side once, and he was right inside the six-yard box. So he threatens.
You can see that if we can get behind teams and put the ball inside the penalty area, he'll be there because he's got the athleticism to keep up with the play and run through the goal. He'll be there to hopefully finish those moves off.
McCart could have won it for you with the header?
Yeah. And it was a well-worked corner. We did that similar to Dundee United last week where Halks came in the back and he headed it off the line. Yeah, just unfortunate. Width of the post for the penalty, otherwise, I'd say we'd have won again 1-0 and we'd have picked three points up.
Kye on the bench, has he played his last game?
Yeah. It's looking that way, I have to be honest. I would have thought in the next 24, 48 hours negotiations could be completed. It's not done yet. It's not finalised yet. But if it is his last game or his last chance of being in the squad, then it'd be unfortunate.
We don't want to lose our best players, but also we understand that it's something that he might want to pursue and it could be a good deal for the club as well. He would go with our best wishes, like Liam Boyce has gone. Gone back to Ireland. Gone back home.
How do you feel that attack and dynamic worked prior to the substitutions with Jorge and James?
It's a dilemma we were speaking about before the game because Jorge gives us good control in the middle of the pitch. We wanted to come here and if you come here and gain control of the game and have good position, then I always think attack is the best form of defence and it gives them less chance of scoring if we've got the ball. But also then you have to make sure that you've got penetration on the last line. There was a few moments in the first half where it didn't quite go for us in and around the penalty area.
Our quality and decision-making let us down, which has been a common theme. But we spoke about at half-time that we need to be a little bit more progressive from the mid-third of the pitch, which we probably didn't quite do well enough until the game opened up a little bit and we had Elton and Jamesy and then obviously you make the subs, attacking subs, we wanted to go for the game with Alan, Kenny, Yan. We tried to go and win the game because we thought in that moment they might feel a little bit of anxiety because of the situation they're in.
But having said that, you know that if you do that, you're also opening up the pitch for some really quick players and athletic players at the other end of the pitch. It's a bit roll the dice and we felt we should do that and we nearly won the game because of it, I felt.
Reports of a bid for Shankland in Turkey?
No, nothing. We've had absolutely no bids. Nothing. No-one's contacted us regarding Shanks.
