Hearts continued their strong run of form as Neil Critchley guided his side to a 2-0 victory over Omonoia on his first-ever European night as manager.
A seven minute blitz from Alan Forrest and Blair Spittal in the first half proved enough for Hearts to overcome the Cypriot side who lacked any real threat throughout the game.
Neil Critchley met the media on Wednesday and spoke of that “special feeling” that comes with European nights at Tynecastle, and the atmosphere was certainly there to back up that statement. Supporters were treated to a fairly changed Hearts side from the thumping against St Mirren on Saturday, with 4 changes coming through Forrester, Kingsley, Devlin, and Forrest all coming in to replace Oyegoke, Penrice, Dhanda, and Baningime respectively.
After a light show, and a display of Heart’s glory days being shown to all at Tynecastle, the teams walked out to the adrenaline- fuelled anthem of the Europa Conference League blaring all around. The Omonoia fans came with voice and belief, even doing the Poznan pre-game, but it was the Hearts faithful who stirred up the noise as the match got underway.
Hearts started off brightly, with Blair Spittal firing over from the edge of the box within thirty seconds, but were immediately faced with an attacking burden as Lawrence Shankland was booked three minutes in after a dangerously high boot that caught Maric who needed treatment.
The Jambos kept the pressure up early on as Omonoia struggled to cope with the rapid attacking plays they faced on the wings of Forrest and Vargas. Charalampos Charalampous ended up in the book only five minutes in after cynically bringing down Boateng who looked to break, proving to be a sign of things to come for the Cypriot side.
Hearts took the lead sixteen minutes into the first half following a wonderful attacking move. Kenneth Vargas pulled the strings along the right-hand side, then laid it off to Blair Spittal who struck a shot only for it to hit the first man. It then fell to Alan Forrest, who took a touch and some time to compose himself before rifling a shot past the hopeless Fabiano into the top left corner to lift the roof off of an already bouncing Tynecastle Park. Hearts were ahead in Europe once again.
The blitz didn’t stop here, however, as Hearts went so close to a second goal only four minutes later. Fabiano pulled off a brilliant save to deny Shankland’s curling effort, and the resulting corner met the towering centre-back Frankie Kent who headed an effort inches wide of the post.
The warning signs were there for Omonoia, but it was Hearts who ultimately capitalised when they doubled their lead in the twenty-third minute. After some small build up play between Forrester and Kent, a backheeled assist deflected off Vargas and straight to the feet of Blair Spittal who lasered a wonderful strike into the top right corner of the net to double the Jambo’s lead and to deflate Omonoia.
The half proceeded to ebb away comfortably for the home side, with the fans being particularly impressed with the forward play of the centre-back Kye Rowes. Omonoia, despite being unapparent for the majority of the half, started to put the pressure on though with Stepinski heading wide twenty-nine minutes in following a cross from Khammas.
Arguably Omonoia’s biggest chance of the game came right before the half time whistle, as following a goal line clearance from Coulibaly at the other end a corner was sent into the former Rangers centre-back Filip Helander whose towering header went just wide of Gordon’s left-hand post. The referee called time on the half much to the approval of the Tynecastle faithful following a majorly successful half for those in maroon.
Neither Critchley nor Dambrauskas decided to make a change at the break, and this showed with the distinct lack of action at the beginning of the second half. Omonoia seemed to employ a counter-attacking style of football, leading to a yellow card for the young Adam Forrester for a cynical shirt pull preventing a break.
The first change of the game came from the Cypriot side when Loizos Loizou came on for Veljko Simic in the fifty third minute, after receiving a lengthy amount of medical attention.
Michal Očenáš had a controversial game as referee, with many on either side disagreeing with some of his decisions, but the Tynecastle crowd made their thoughts clear after Craig Gordon picked up a soft yellow card for timewasting in the fifty seventh minute. The decisions were not one sided however, as Coulibaly picked up a yellow card for bringing down Boateng seven minutes later much to the annoyance of the Omonoia support.
Hearts decided to make their first changes of the night in the sixty third minute with a double change. Adam Forrester was replaced by defender Daniel Oyegoke, whereas Kenneth Vargas was replaced by Jorge Grant.
Omonoia knew they needed a big response in the second half, and the flurry of subs made in the sixty seventh minute proved to offer more of an attacking threat for the away side. The shamrock side brought on threat in Saidou Alioum, Andronikos Kakoullis and Giannis Masouras whilst taking off Willy Semedo, Mariusz Stepinski and Alpha Diounkou respectively.
From here it was Omonoia who looked to threaten the most, with Hearts clearly playing a defensive half, and the number ninety-nine Saidou Alioum proved the biggest threat by causing trouble on the left wing. The forward’s biggest chance came in the seventy first minute when he cut inside a pocket of space and unleashed a wild effort that went down as wasted.
Hearts decided to make a double change later on in the half based around defensive assurance. The two stars of the show Alan Forrest and Blair Spittal went off to a standing ovation from the crowd with two goals between them on the night. They were replaced by fan-favourite Yan Dhanda and the defender James Penrice looking to control the latter half of the game.
The half continued to ebb on with little action, although there was a slight scare for goalkeeper Craig Gordon after a VAR check for a possible red card following a foul outside of the box, however it was quickly cleared. Just after, the Omonoia forward Alioum struck the post following a nice play, although the flag was raised quickly. Jorge Grant was also subject to the offside flag, as his effort that ended up in the net was quickly ruled out in the eightieth minute for offside.
The two managers both sought one last roll of the dice with substitutions in the eighty second minute, as Amine Khammas was replaced by Fotis Kitsos for Omonoia and Stephen Kingsley was replaced by Barrie McKay for Hearts.
The referee called time on the match to the major delight of the home crowd, with the players and manager proceeding to applaud the Tynecastle support for the bouncing atmosphere all game. The two-nil win sees the Jambos move up to sixth on goal difference with six points in the Conference League table, whereas the Cypriot side fall to sixteenth place on three points.
Hearts now set their sights on the major derby game against Hibernian on Sunday at 12:00, whereas it is back to domestic action for Omonoia too as they face Karmiotissa before facing Gent next Thursday.
Good copy Oli.
Informative, bright and flowing.
You have captured the Tynecastle atmosphere very well.
An interesting read.
Well done.