Cammy Devlin insists it’ll take brave Hearts if Turkish Super Lig high fliers Istanbul Basaksehir are to be scalped at Tynecastle on Thursday.
Defeat at Livingston made it five losses in six games going into the Europa Conference League Group A opener. Aussie battler Devlin is adamant there’s no confidence crisis in the Jambos squad despite another flaky performance at the Tony Macaroni Arena. But he accepts the men in maroon need to rediscover their bravado in time for Mesut Ozil and co arriving in Gorgie.
Cristian Montano was afforded the freedom of the Hearts penalty area to score the only goal of the game after 28 minutes on Saturday. That knocked the stuffing out of the Jambos who had been the better of the two up to that stage but ended the 90 minutes without registering a single shot on target. Had it not been for Craig Gordon pulling off three impressive saves in the closing stages it could have been worse.
But Devlin insists a sold out Tynecastle under the lights is the perfect stage to re-energise a side that had crashed out of the League Cup to Kilmarnock three days before their Livi woe. And he admits it’s time to give something back to the supporters.
The midfielder said: “It’s a tough place to come Livi. We have to rise above that and in the first 20 we created numerous opportunities.
“We went away from what was working and we got put under a bit of pressure. We went in our shells a bit.
“They got a goal and it was the same as Kilmarnock. When you go a goal down to these sort of teams, it becomes harder. We didn’t help ourselves today.
“We have to be braver and harder. That’s not good enough when playing for Hearts. We’ve got to bounce back quickly on Thursday.
“We’re all super excited about being in Europe and we have a great chance to go on and play good football on the European stage. The league is where we earned the right to be in Europe and that should really be our bread and butter - to come to places like this and win.
“Everyone needs to step up when we come to places like this. Everyone needs to be on it.
“A couple of weeks ago, we played our best football in the first half of a European qualifier. Then we beat St Johnstone, so it’s now two defeats on the bounce.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a confidence thing. We want to step up and we know we can and we will.
“We have more than half the stadium of Hearts fans here and that shows the support we have. We’re so grateful for that. It’ll be a sold out Tynecastle on Thursday.
“We need to give back to them, and it’s something we tried to do. They’re coming out in numbers and won’t be want to be disappointed, just like us.”
Hearts - missing the injured Craig Halkett, Kye Rowles, Nat Atkinson and Liam Boyce - handed a debut to deadline day loan signing Stephen Humphrys. The powerful Wigan frontman put himself about but was snuffed out by Aye Obileye and Sean Kelly and Lawrence Shankland, who emerged as a second half sub, is likely to be brought back in to start against Istanbul.
Devlin insists his team mates have to take the bull by the horns against superstars Ozil, Nacir Chadli and Lucas Biglia. He said: “We all grew up watching Ozil at Arsenal. He’s a class player and super excited to go toe-to-toe with him.
“That’s why you play football to go up against these big players, but as a team we need to stick together and go in full of confidence. It’s a European game - you have to be.
“Our last European game was a positive game other than a decision that changed the tie. We have to go into it and play our game plan for the full game.”
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