After being appointed Hearts boss in the middle of October, Neil Critchley would have been satisfied to win three of the first five competitive matches of his tenure (D1, L1).
Unfortunately for Critchley, his side have experienced a dramatic dip in results in recent weeks, losing four consecutive matches, including a Conference League loss against Heidenheim and league defeats against Rangers and Celtic.
Hearts missed the chance to end their losing run in Thursday’s Conference League clash against Cercle Brugge, with Lawrence Shankland blazing over an 81st-minute penalty when his side were trailing by a 1-0 scoreline.
Cercle Brugge went on to add a late second to claim a 2-0 win in Belgium as Hearts failed to trouble the scorers for the third time in four matches.
Hearts may still be content with the fact they are sitting in 17th place in the Conference League table, but while they may be in a qualification spot in their European campaign, the Jambos are down in 11th place in the Scottish Premiership with just nine points to their name.
Although they have won just two league games this term, Hearts may be able to take confidence from the fact that the home side on the day have won each of the last 10 meetings between these two sides.
Aberdeen’s unlikely title bid has started to lose momentum in the last two matches, losing a league game for the first time this season in last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to St Mirren before
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settling for a draw in Tuesday’s thrilling contest against Hibernian.After establishing a 2-1 lead at Easter Road, Aberdeen went on to concede in the 92nd minute before Ester Sokler produced a stunning strike to score what
seemed like the winning goal.However, a dramatic encounter produced one final twist as Rocky Bushiri netted an equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time to stun the second-placed side, leaving them two points adrift of
leaders Celtic after playing one game more.Aberdeen will still be delighted to boast a record of 10 wins, two draws and one defeat in 13 matches, giving them a surprising nine-point buffer over Rangers in third position, even if
Phillipe Clement’s side have the advantage of a game in hand.The Dons will now turn their focus to Sunday’s road trip, with the visitors looking to end a three-game winless away league run (D2, L1) since beating Dundee 2-1 at the end of September.
