We need everyone together – Neil Critchley calls for unity at Hearts

Neil Critchley called for unity among the Hearts support after the Tynecastle side climbed out of the bottom two of the William Hill Premiership with a hard-fought 2-1 home win over St Johnstone.

The most vocal section of the Jambos’ fanbase – the Gorgie Ultras – boycotted Sunday’s match to protest against the running of the club amid a poor start to the campaign.

They missed their team picking up a fourth league victory of the season through a 58th-minute volley from Blair Spittal shortly after Graham Carey’s penalty for Saints had cancelled out James Penrice’s first-half opener.

Asked about the absence of the ultras group, Critchley issued an impassioned plea for all supporters to rally behind the club as they bid to improve their predicament.

“We need them,” said the head coach. “We need everyone together. We need their support. The support in the ground today was fantastic and it made a difference.

“This should be an intimidating atmosphere for everyone who comes here. We’ve got to make this like a fortress. To do that, we need everyone with us.

“In a sticky moment, that’s where you turn to the people around you to galvanise you. We’ve had to galvanise ourselves this week. The players need the staff, they need me, but we need them (the supporters) as well.

“We have to do it together and we need the supporters with us. It’s vitally important because that’s what gives you the best chance of having success.

“We don’t need separation and people thinking differently or going off on their own agendas. We all want the same thing. We all want Hearts to be successful. We all need to be thinking forward and aligned in how we do that.”

Asked about Hearts’ performance as they leapfrogged Saints and Ross County to move to 10th in the league, Critchley said: “I thought we were excellent in the first half. Looked like a proper team.

“Played some really good football, scored an outstanding goal. And then moments go against you, like our second goal (from James Wilson) ruled out for offside.

“They get a penalty that is not a penalty in my opinion. And then you start to think ‘how are we 1-1 in this game?’ You think, here we go again and then Spitts pulls a fantastic piece of skill to control that volley out of the sky.”

Saints slipped to the bottom of the table as a result, and manager Simo Valakari said: “It’s not a good situation, but there are no excuses.

“There are still plenty of games to play, but we can’t think ‘we’ll be OK, we’ll win this, this and this’. We need to start to win football matches.

“It’s worrying and it’s disappointing but it’s a reset moment.”