Neil Critchley urges Hearts to put cup run on back-burner and focus on league

Neil Critchley has told his Hearts players to put thoughts of Hampden on the back-burner and focus on securing a place in the top six of the William Hill Premiership before their Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-final.

The Jambos were the first team to book their place in the last four as Sander Kartum hit a sublime double in a 3-1 quarter-final victory over Dundee at Tynecastle on Friday.

The draw takes place on Monday, but Critchley is more concerned with ensuring his team – a point behind sixth-placed Motherwell – can climb back into the top six over the course of their remaining four games before the split.

“The semi-final’s weeks away,” said Critchley when asked who he would like to face at Hampden. “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. It’s mid-April, isn’t it?

“We’re in early March, we’ve got an international break yet. Our focus is straight on to Ross County next week.

“The players will have this weekend off, have a rest and then we come back in Monday and we’re ready to go.

“Ross County is a big game because we want to be in the semi-final and we also want to finish in the top six and keep progressing.”

Critchley had to make a change in defence as Jamie McCart felt discomfort in training the day before the game and was replaced by Lewis Neilson, but the head coach was confident McCart’s issue was nothing serious.

“Hopefully, no,” he said. “He was in the team to play, but just didn’t feel right when he’d completed the training. He just felt like he couldn’t sprint and open up.

“With the defensive issues we’ve got at the moment, we can’t take a calculated risk so we just took that decision out of his hands. Lewis came in and fair play to him.”