Hearts stay perfect in Conference League by beating Omonia Nicosia

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Neil Critchley’s sure-footed start as Hearts boss continued after a comfortable 2-0 home win over Omonia Nicosia maintained the Edinburgh side’s perfect beginning to their Conference League campaign.

Buoyed by a 4-0 victory over St Mirren on Saturday in the former Blackpool and QPR manager’s first game since replacing Steven Naismith, the Jambos made it two wins in as many matches under the Englishman as they eased past their Cypriot visitors with first-half goals from Alan Forrest and Blair Spittal.

Hearts, who remain joint-bottom of the Scottish Premiership with Edinburgh rivals Hibernian, are joint-top of the fledgling Conference League table and firmly on course to stay involved in European competition beyond Christmas for the first time since reaching the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup in 1988-89.

Critchley – partly with Sunday’s bottom-of-the-table showdown with Hibs in mind – made four changes to the side that beat St Mirren as Adam Forrester, Stephen Kingsley, Cammy Devlin and Forrest replaced Daniel Oyegoke, James Penrice, Beni Baningime and Yan Dhanda.

Omonia manager Valdas Dambrauskas had spoken ahead of the match about his delight at being at Tynecastle where so many of his fellow Lithuanians – including several to whom he was close – played during Kaunas-based businessman Vladimir Romanov’s reign as Hearts owner earlier this century.

Dambrauskas’ pre-match excitement would swiftly have given way to trepidation as his team – having lost three of their previous four Cypriot top-flight matches – made an abject start in the Scottish capital.

Hearts signalled their intent when Spittal volleyed over from the edge of the box with just 15 seconds on the clock.

Critchley’s fired-up side threatened again when Lawrence Shankland – who was booked after less than three minutes for a high challenge – drove menacingly into the box but the captain was unable to get a shot away.

The hosts’ aggressive start paid off in the 16th minute when Spittal’s effort from outside the box deflected off Senou Coulibaly and Forrest pounced on the loose ball to lash a ferocious angled strike high past Fabiano from eight yards out.

The visitors were struggling and they required their goalkeeper to pull off an excellent save in the 22nd minute when he got down to his right to tip Shankland’s low shot from 15 yards round the post. From the resulting corner, Frankie Kent headed wide from inside the six-yard box.

A minute later, Hearts doubled their lead when Spittal fired home an emphatic right-footed finish from 16 yards out after Shankland’s back-heel ricocheted nicely into his path off Kenneth Vargas.

Spittal – having scored for the third match in succession – almost added another just after the half-hour mark when he drove forward and curled narrowly wide from the edge of the box.

The best Omonia could muster before the break was a couple of off-target headers from former Rangers defender Filip Helander in the closing stages of the first half, either side of two big opportunities for Shankland.

The Cypriots improved in the second period but rarely looked capable of getting back into the game as Hearts set themselves up nicely for a showdown with Bundesliga side Heidenheim in a fortnight.