Neil Critchley confirmed Liam Fox will remain part of his Heart of Midlothian backroom staff for the "immediate future".

The 45-year-old was announced as the club's new head coach on Tuesday, replacing Steven Naismith, and it was confirmed that Mike Garrity will be his assistant as he was at both Queens Park Rangers and Blackpool.

Fox, who has led the team for a three-game interim spell, was involved in Critchley's first training session on Tuesday.

"I've been speaking to him a lot, so he's with us on the training ground and he'll stay with us in the immediate future," Critchley explained. 


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"Credit to him and his staff for the interim period. I watched those games and thought they could have easily got something at Aberdeen, had a good win in Europe, to come from behind. I know it was late on against Ross County, but arguably could have won that game as well.

He added: "Also, Steven did a fantastic job last season with his staff, and sometimes these things happen unfortunately, and it's a fresh start for me now and I've got to try and come in and get the team moving in the right direction again."

Critchley has also had Ian Brunskill as part of his coaching staff in the past. The long-term arrangement around his backroom team will be a point of discussion with the club's incoming sporting director Graeme Jones but Critchley doesn't have a "specific number" of coaches he is looking for.

"I think we have to look at the model that we want to maybe develop moving forward, and that'll be discussions that I have with Graeme as well, when he's in post, but there's not a specific number."