On Sunday afternoon Heart of Midlothian will run out at Fir Park for their first experience of the Thursday-Sunday grind that is set to shape the first half of the season.

The term grind gives off negative connotations. But it is a positive and is the price of last season's success when the side cantered to third. It means at least eight games in European competition with the first having taken place on Thursday evening against Viktoria Plzen in Czechia in the Europa League play-off.

Hearts flew back to Edinburgh on Friday morning after a stoppage-time loss in the Doosan Arena the evening prior. A win or draw would have provided a bounce into the Motherwell encounter. Instead, the team have to pick themselves up after the "sickening" defeat. Not only that but they go searching for their first win of the season, something that frustrates the squad.

"It does and of course you want to win games," Lawrence Shankland said. "Again it flips, we go to Motherwell at the weekend where we're expected to go and win. That needs to be the mindset of the boys, it's going to be games coming thick and fast - whether that be in the Europa League or in the Conference after next week.

"We're going to be playing Thursday-Sunday for a good bit. It comes down to mentality, you need to be ready to suffer at times. The Sunday games will be difficult, there will be games you don't play your best and you need to try and grind out wins.

"You'll be fatigued but if your mindset is right and you're ready for that challenge, then you can stand up to it and get points in the league as well."

The next game is always the most important. Even more so in the case of Hearts who are the only Premiership team not to win a game this season, whether it be in the league, Europe or League Cup. But it doesn't take away from the excitement of a big night under the lights at Tynecastle Park on Thursday evening.

All Hearts fans who were in the Doosan Arena or watching at home, will know Plzen are there for the taking. A team that can be got at. And a team who could even be spooked by a raucous Tynie.

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"Away from home, the first 15 minutes can be a bit wary," Shankland said. "You are sizing up opponents, you aren't used to what you are playing against. It's different in the league when you play teams all the time.

"We settled into the game pretty well, finished the first half strongly and we made a couple of good chances. We were threatening and we had a couple of shots that made the goalie make saves.

"In the second half, Kenny [Vargas] had a half chance going through as well and we just didn't manage to get the goal - which has been a wee bit of the story in the last few weeks. That changes at some point and I'm sure the momentum will change.

"The objective was to come here and build. It's a bit of a cliche but you're still in the tie and you're going back there. I've seen their manager saying they saw the first leg as hugely important because they are not used to the atmosphere. Hopefully, our place is rocking next week and we can get at them from the start."

He added: "The overall feeling is that we have a right good chance to go through next week."

Shankland took encouragement from the way the team were "structured", "organised" and defensively "solid throughout". Plus the way Hearts managed the game at points, an attribute Scottish teams have struggled to develop in Europe.

"It's part of the game, I'm sure they'll be doing the same this week," Shankland said when asked about Viktoria Plzen's gripes about slowing the game down. "It's managing football and I wouldn't say we were time-wasting or diving. I think boys were genuinely going down with knocks.

"Of course, that is frustrating and I think their crowd probably turned up expecting them to just run over the top of us and they didn't. That adds to the atmosphere and they get a bit frustrated about that. I wouldn't say we were time-wasting, we were playing the game and managing it away from home like we should."

As captain, Shankland also revealed what he said to Daniel Oyegoke after his own goal which gave Plzen the late win.

"There's nothing to say to him, really," he said. "He's got himself in a defensive position and it has just bounced off him. I said to him it would probably be worse if he got caught up the pitch and the guy taps it in. I told him he needed to be there to defend.

"He will obviously be down but I don't think there's anything to be down about in terms of what the boys think. He is there to try and do his job and he's just unlucky with the bounce of the ball."