Neil Critchley was really happy with the character of his side as Heart of Midlothian booked their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final with a 3-1 win over Dundee.
Sander Kartum was the star of the show, scoring twice, either side of a Simon Murray own goal and a Joe Shaughnessy equaliser.
Critchley spoke about the nature of the cup tie, the response to the derby, Kartum, Vargas and the centre-back partnership.
Read or listen to everything the Hearts head coach said:
That was a tough game but in the hat?
I thought it was a really good game, a good cup tie. At 1-1 the game's in the balance, but that was the perfect response from the group from last week. We had to show, again, a lot of character tonight and belief in what we were doing.
This group continues to do that and we're making steps forward. We're in the next round and we can sit back and relax and watch all the others have a stressful weekend.
Talking about relaxing, it was a wee bit nervous early on, but that second goal just seemed to settle it and the team certainly grew in the second half?
I think that's understandable from last week. Obviously, a fantastic first goal, a brilliant piece of quality from Sander. That helped, but Dundee caused a lot of problems. They get the ball forward and it was long throws and set pieces and you have to defend them really well. We defended poorly for their equaliser where we switched off, allowed him to get to the byline and then really poor marking in the box. But then we have to, again, regroup and go again. We had a great chance to score soon after, to go 2-1 when Elton was through.
A little bit of fortune maybe for the second goal, but it's also a good delivery. If you put it in the right spaces and the right areas, that can happen because you're making them defend awkward balls into the box, which is why we put in an inswinger, put it in on the goal and that can happen. A brilliant third goal and we had some good opportunities to really kill the game off. It was a great atmosphere.
Dundee fans came out in big numbers and it was a proper cup tie and a really enjoyable evening.
You mentioned Sander. He was a team-mate of one of the Aberdeen players and he said, don't let him get near the box on his left foot, and twice today.
That's what we saw in him when we recruited him. He's obviously taken a little bit of time to get up to speed, which is understandable. We've seen his quality, that's been evident in training and he's been getting fitter and stronger all the time.
He's come on from the St Mirren game where he had his first start. I think we saw that tonight. He looks in better rhythm and they were two fantastic goals. I'm not sure how the second one went in really.
I was expecting him to shoot off his right foot, but the lefties are normally reluctant to use their right foot.
It was a lively performance from Kenny Vargas. What was behind the decision to bring him back in and he's had to be patient?
No, definitely. Obviously, coming on against St Mirren and scoring only two games ago, I think it was, gave him a lift. Like a lot of players, we have to be patient because the players have been playing well and winning games. That's the life of a footballer. You have to be patient, keep working hard in training and wait for opportunity.
I thought Kenny played with good energy, good mentality tonight, focused on the game and was dangerous. It was probably unfortunate not to get on the score sheet himself.
At the other end of the pitch, there's another centre-back partnership. Can you talk about their pairing and how that came about with Jamie McCart?
Jamie trained yesterday. He was in the team to play, but just didn't feel right. When he's completed the training, we've done all our prep. That was unfortunate.
With the defensive issues we've got at the moment, we can't take a calculated risk. Lewis came in and again, Lewis has been training really well.
You could see this week, he had the bit between his teeth in the way he trained. For someone to come into a game like that and play how he played tonight, I thought him and Michael were quite a sound, solid partnership. [Dundee] Didn't have too many chances, clear opportunities. That's the way we work in training. Everyone knows their role and responsibility because we always train together as a collective and we do a lot of unit work.
Even if one player comes out and another one comes in, they've been doing the same practices. They get familiar with how we want to play and that's where you get that seamless transition. If somebody is injured, someone can step in and hopefully it doesn't look like he's not played for the last few weeks.
Who do you fancy in the semi-finals?
I would say anyone. It’s weeks away, we've got loads of games to go yet. So who knows what form we're going to be in or the form of the opponent. I think it's mid-April, isn't it? We're in early March, we've got an international break yet. Our focus is straight onto Ross County next week. The players will have a weekend off, have a rest and then we come back in on Monday and we're ready to go. Ross County is a big game because we want to be in the semi-final and we want to finish in the top six and keep progressing.
Could you have been up against 10 men?
No, I understand why the referee played on. Elton's in, 1v1 with a goalkeeper to beat.
Honestly, at the time, I never said anything to the fourth official. I totally understand why he would play on in that moment. I'm not sure why then he brings back and gives a yellow card. I'm sure there is a reason for that.
I don't know the rules well enough which is poor for me, why that happened? When it happened, I wasn't shouting for sending off because I'd seen Elton was in. So, no problem.
Jamie McCart, nothing serious?
Hopefully, no. I'd say he trained yesterday. He's not feeling 100 per cent. He just felt like he couldn't sprint and open up. We just took that decision yesterday, took that out of his hands. Lewis is in and ready to play. Fair play to him.
