Neil Critchley says Hearts’ upcoming fixtures are ‘everything’ for their season

Neil Critchley has braced his resurgent Hearts side for a pivotal period as they bid to book their place in the William Hill Premiership top six.

The Jambos are one of several sides who could yet find themselves competing for a European place or locked in a relegation scrap depending how they perform in the next seven league games before the split.

Hearts have lost only one of their last nine matches but Critchley – whose side visit St Johnstone on Sunday – knows their upcoming run will be season-defining.

“It’s everything,” said the Englishman, who took over in October when Hearts were two points adrift at the bottom of the table.

“We have seven games until the split and we want to be looking up and competing at the top end of the league come the end of the season, so this next group of games is really pivotal to that.”

Critchley knows even the three games over the next week against St Johnstone, St Mirren and Hibernian could go a long way to shaping things for his side and he plans to utilise the depth of his squad.

“We’ve got nine points to play for in a short period, a short space of time, so the league can look completely different in seven to ten days’ time,” he said.

“We’ve got three games next week as well, we’ve got a midweek game, so we’ll have to manage the squad through the week and that’s the message to all the players.

“You have to train right, you have to be prepared, ready to take the opportunity and I won’t be afraid to change the team, win, lose or draw, if I think it’s the right thing to do to play the opponent that we’re about to face.”

Critchley has enjoyed two 2-1 victories in his previous meetings with St Johnstone and he is anticipating another tight encounter against the league’s bottom side in Perth.

“Both games were really close, obviously they went in our favour, but they’ve caused us problems in both games,” he said. “If you take out last week’s result (Saints’ defeat at Kilmarnock), prior to that they were in really good form.

“They’ve had some changes in January with personnel, system change, so away from home we’re expecting a really close, tough game.”