When it comes to individual performances in the maroon and white on a midweek night in Europe, in recent years there has only been one man for the job: Cammy Devlin.

Twelve months ago he was the two-goal hero as Heart of Midlothian overturned a first-leg loss and the concession of an early goal in the second led to defeat Norwegian giants Rosenborg at a raucous Tynecastle Park.

Go back 12 months further and the Aussie delivered perhaps his finest midfield performance in a Hearts jersey against FC Zurich despite the loss. In fact, it may well have been the best midfield performance by a Hearts midfielder across the past two seasons.

What makes him come alive on such nights?

“I think as a player you want to kind of be someone," Devlin said. “We work so hard every single day for big games and we get a lot of them in Scotland and you kind of prepare yourself to just be ready for whatever challenge or test that comes. 

“I think the games that we play in Scotland are very different to the European games and you want to be a player that is ready for the big occasion. 

“I just try to prepare myself as best I can and no matter what game or how big of the occasion it is, I just do the very best I can and hopefully I can do more of the same tomorrow.”

When the game kicks off tomorrow it will be 3am back in Sydney and Devlin's dad will be up early to watch his son in action. He has already notified his son about what channel it will be on.

Closer to home, he and the team will be backed by nearly 700 Hearts fans who will squeeze into a corner of the Doosan Arena. 

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Devlin noted the desire to "repay them in terms of the effort" they have taken to travel. Doing so would see Hearts take a huge step toward the league phase of the Europa League ahead of the home leg at Tynecastle Park next week.

"We're really fortunate in terms of how hard we worked last year and how we were very successful in the way we played and the position we put ourselves in, we're very fortunate to be in it in terms of the fallback," he explained.

“But it's not really something we've talked about or you even think of, to be honest, because we've got two massive games in the next week and the opportunity to play in the Europa League is something that we've had the opportunity once, but it was something that I never thought coming over here that I would get that opportunity. 

“So to be sitting in this room knowing that we've got the first hurdle tomorrow night to be playing in the Europa League is so exciting and massive.

“If we can make that possible as a team, that would be so big for the club. And I think the position we're in is something we deserve. So fingers crossed we can put a positive performance on going home next week."

For a positive performance, it will require significant improvement on the previous two outings.

The start to the season has left the players and management team frustrated with Devlin noting how the squad were feeling after a "really good" pre-season. One of the mantras of the past week has been about putting it right. No better time than the next game.

“You know, it's not how we wanted to start," he said. "But I think the best thing about football is, especially when you're in these European games, you've got games every four or five days.

“So you can, you know, have your night of being sad or whatever, but you just got to get over it, work as hard as you can on the pitch, because that's how you make things right. And I feel like we've done that this week. Intensity has been up and it's been really positive and getting back to the way we want to play and the way we've been drilled to kind of put on the pitch.

“And yeah, it's about us as players just making that happen.”

Hearts will have to be at their best to come away with a result from Viktoria Plzen. And it could take another momentous midfield mastermind from Cammy Devlin.