Heart of Midlothian's preparation for the Conference League clash with Heidenheim has been ongoing in the background in preparation for Thursday's encounter at Tynecastle Park. 

Even before the 2-1 win over St Johnstone, the club's analysts had started forming details and dossiers. The principles of play, key players, set-piece threat, and other elements of the German side, in and out of possession.

It wasn't until Friday afternoon, with the work for the trip to Perth having been done and the players having left the Oriam, that Neil Critchley was able to begin even thinking about Heidenheim. Having been "aware of certain aspects of their play", he was able to set some time aside to watch them in action.

When it comes to studying an opponent, one the team aren't playing three or four times a year, what is the process like?

It's not as straightforward as watching the team's last three games. It's about taking in relevant matches, even if it means going back a month or two. It's about building pictures, using all the information gathered, and then condensing it down for the players to analyse.

"I watch the games with the analysts and you try and then formulate the picture of how you think the game's going to be," Critchley said. "Because you might watch a game against an opposition that are playing a completely different formation to us, a completely different style so therefore it's not a true reflection of the game that you're going to play.

"So sometimes the last game might not be the most relevant game, it might be a game that you have to go back six weeks and watch. You're trying to pick out moments in the game that you think, 'That's where we're going to get an advantage or that's something that we need to stop in the opposition because this is what they're really good at, this is how we're going to do it'.

"It's just a process and it can be a number of games, it can be a game from last week, it can be a game from six weeks ago and you put all that information together, you condense it down, you filter it all out and make sure then the players just know exactly the key messages and what's expected of them in and out of possession."