Josh Ginnelly insists Hearts are a bonkers bet away from taking their Europa Conference League group hopes down to the wire. The Jambos winger believes football's ability to throw up the unexpected provides hope of maintaining their slim qualification hopes when they host Latvians RFS.
If Fiorentina beat table toppers Istanbul Basaksehir in a Group A clash earlier in Florence then it would be a dead rubber contest in Gorgie with Robbie Neilson's men having their exit confirmed. Hearts can still progress if they win their last two games and the Italians fail to bank anything more than one point and Ginnelly is convinced it can become a madcap finish to their campaign for the men in maroon with a trip to Turkey on the horizon next week.
He said: "It's football and we have all seen some crazy things happen. It's about taking it game by game and we need the fans, we need everybody pulling in the one direction. That's from Craig Gordon in goal down to the man who is last in the squad.
"We all have to be on board with what we want to do and just see how far it takes us. Every game is different. Sometimes you can set up for a game to go one way – and it goes completely the opposite way. We’re prepared for anything. RFS are a very good side and they deserve a lot more credit than others have given them.
"They’ve gone away from home against the two biggest sides in the group and managed to get a draw. You have to give credit where it’s due. But we’re going into this with confidence. Obviously we beat them over there and we want to do it again at home in front of our own fans."
It would have been easy for Ginnelly to play the Europa Conference League victim card with a Tynecastle record in danger of becoming a busted flush. Ginnelly is convinced a clear head and focusing on the task in hand against the Latvian champions is all that matters and talk of being out of their depth at this level is best left to the doomsayers.
He said: "We’ve got no victim mentality. We’re a good side and we know if we’re on it we can match most teams we play against, if not better them. You saw on Saturday against Celtic we probably had the better of the game and should have walked away with something. They’re playing in the Champions League and playing against Real Madrid and we went toe to toe, if not played better than them. Any game that we play, especially at home, we want to win and of course we want to go through, we just need to get this game out of the way. We need to get the result and then see what happens."
Ginnelly produced one of his finest performances in a Hearts shirt during a 2-0 win in Riga against RFS last month in what has been a rare highlight in the competition with a gulf in class being exposed against both the Italians and the table topping Turks.
The 25-year-old is adamant a recent run of only three wins from the last 15 outings doesn't begin to paint a true picture of their form and even a weekend loss at home to Celtic came with a proviso. He said: "I wouldn't say it's a fair reflection, it's one of those things which is done. There's no point in talking about it as there are so many stats in football now that it can clog up the thought process if you let it.
"Even on Saturday against Celtic we should have come away with something and could even have won the game.
"We never won but for us to reflect on that too much is only going to get in the way of the next game.
"That's what's great about football, you can always get a chance to turn things around."
Hearts have lost 15 goals in their last four games in Gorgie but even that stat hasn't dampened a belief in Ginnelly that they can still give their fans a European high tonight by putting RFS to the sword. He said: "As a team and the belief within the group, we have had some bad results here, but the belief is still there and we are still all pulling in the right direction. It's just all about having that relentlessness to keep going and that's what we are going to do. Our fans play a big part in what we do. A lot of our frustration has been down to us wanting to get a result for them. We want to get Tynecastle rocking and try to put on a show for them as some of the results have been tough."
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