Heart of Midlothian go into Thursday's Conference League match looking to make it three wins out of three in the reformatted competition.

Bundesliga outfit Heidenheim are up next at Tynecastle Park after Omonia Nicosia were put to the sword by Neil Critchley's men a couple of weeks ago.

The Hearts head coach spoke to the media ahead of a potentially historic night.

From team news to what Heidenheim will bring and making Tynecastle Park "horrible", here is everything Critchley said ahead of another night under the lights in Europe. 

How ready are the squad for what could be a huge night for the club this season?

We're ready to go. It's a couple of days after the St Johnstone game – that was a busy period of games – so we're refreshed, we're clear on what we need to do and we're looking forward to a good game. A big challenge, but one that, being at home, we're really looking forward to.

European nights are always a bit special, but when you've got a German side here, they do seem to be even more heightened. Does that excitement go through the dressing room as well?

“Yeah, I think so. I think when you're meeting certain teams from certain parts of Europe and the footballing world, German teams, Bundesliga teams, it does create that little bit more anticipation in the type of game you might be playing and watching them play and seeing how good they are. We know we're in for a big test, but if we can play a game that we want to play, then we know it'll be a really good game and we will be a really good match for them.”

A couple of months ago, you were out of a job and here you are managing a team who have a chance, if they win tomorrow, to all but guarantee their place in at least a play-off position. That's pretty surreal, isn't it?

I'm very proud to be the head coach of Hearts, but I've been coaching a number of years and when I came here. I know that I've got belief in my ability as a coach, but you need good people around you and good support. We've made a good start initially, but we've got so much to do. Managing in Europe is something very, very special, something I don't take for granted. But again, like I always say, the pride I will have will be in the players and how they perform on the pitch because they should always be an extension of myself and the club. So far we've made a reasonably decent start together. Hopefully we can take another step forward Thursday night.

Finally for me then, you're taking on a coach who's been in these jobs since 2007. That's very, very unusual in football these days. I don't know why, but he has been. What does that tell us about, first of all, management in terms of how it can work?

Yes, well, something that I think all coaches and managers would want is time. The head coach at Heidenheim has obviously had that, and rightly so, because if you look at their journey, it's quite remarkable really, where they've come from and where they are now. It's been an unbelievable journey. I was only mentioning this morning, it was years ago I watched a documentary, it must have been about 10 years ago now, and I'm pretty sure Frank Schmidt was on that. It was following four managers that were in the background and Heidenheim were one of the teams. He was on this documentary that I watched, which was really enjoyable because it showed you what the journey of the club was on and where they were and where they were trying to get to. To be meeting 10 years later, it shows you that football is a small world and what a fantastic job he's done. He's had time, but he's been successful. What a great season they had last season as well, first year in the Bundesliga. I know they'll be wanting to retain their status this season, and they're in Europe. It's been incredible really.

What sort of tests do you face, given that they've won a couple of European games as well? Recently, I think it's just one win in six. What tests do you face?

You'd say they're not in a great moment, but when you watch them play again, I just see the capabilities of the players on the pitch. We know that they have certain traits. If you look at their goals conceded record this season, it's not many. They don't concede many goals. They're very hard to break down, very hard to play against, quite man-for-man orientated in the way that they press. Very dangerous on the counter-attack, as German teams are, very efficient. Their mentality is very good. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been as successful as they are. We know exactly who we're facing, what we're going to need to do and if you want to win games of football at this level, you have to be good with the ball, you have to be good without the ball. It's as simple as that. You have to be good in all aspects, set pieces, everything. If you don't get the details right, then you get beat.

How welcome has it been playing in the group stage? Do you feel, given that in the league this season it's been a bit of a stop-start, does it help having that variety of Conference League football?

I can only comment on me coming in in the last few weeks. At the moment, we're just trying to build a clear identity and a consistent way of playing, regardless of the competition, regardless of who we're playing home or away, who we're playing against. We just want to try and keep building on who we are, how we want to play, how we want to attack the games. So again, this game on Thursday is our next step and chance to practice who we want to be as a group, as a club if you like, long-term.

How far ahead are you on that journey that you feel being who you want to be? Are you ahead of it, behind?

It's so early. We're at the infancy. If I'd just come in, I wouldn't have even completed pre-season yet. We're trying to implement certain things into players with very limited time on the training ground in between games. That can be challenging, but that's what we face. That's the schedule, that's the games. I knew that when I came in. I knew what I was inheriting. So far, the players have been really open, really receptive to the work that we've done. We've had some success with it, but we're at the very, very, very early stages.

Having won the opening two games, how much of an opportunity do you feel there is now to go deep into this tournament?

I'm not sure how far, but we've made a good start and we have to capitalise on that. We are at home. We're trying to take another step forward and get three points. If we do that, we'll be in a really positive position. I'm not looking any further than Heidenheim, really, because we know the difficult task we've got in front of us. It would be foolish to start looking ahead and planning ahead. Hopefully, the supporters are doing that for some of their away trips, but for us, we're solely focused on Thursday night and the job we've got in front of us.

Have you tried to work out how many points you might need to get a play-off or even to get straight through to them?

I'll be honest, I haven't. I don't look at numbers and positions. I just try and concentrate on what we can control, and that's both with the league and the Europa League. It's the next game, how do we need to improve, what do the players need to know when we're going to the pitch, what we're going to need to do well. If you take care of those things and you do them well, then the results and league positions and points take care of itself.

Just in a general sense, how good is it to have a tournament like this in the current format, where there is a possibility to dream of going into February, March, possibly even further? 

It's exciting for the club, it's exciting for the supporters. I've said it before, that's credit to Steven Naismith and his staff and the players from last season for having such a great season and qualifying for Europe. Now we're trying to just take that forward again, pick it up and move forward and keep going. I say we've put ourselves in a really good position, firstly with Foxy winning the game away from home in his interim period, and then the game from the other week. But it's only two games, we've got four to go, and things can change very quickly.

Can you take encouragement from another Scottish side being a German side this week?

I enjoyed watching that game. Celtic were fully deserving of their victory, I thought they were excellent on the night. Hopefully we can be the next Scottish team to win against German opposition.

What do you think you need from your players tomorrow night?

A very strong mentality. We're going to have to be fully concentrated on focus for that, and I know that's quite an obvious thing to say for the whole game. I think Heidenheim, because they're used to winning games and having success, they know how to manage games very well, winning or losing. They have a maturity in how they play the game. We have to make sure that, yes, we want to play with emotion, we want to play with intensity, we want to get the supporters behind us, but also we have to manage periods of the game. Like we did against Omonia, we started off very well, but in the second half Omonia showed their quality and we had to make sure we managed that period of the game without the ball, and we did that very well.

It was raucous in here that night, but was it important that you just harnessed that energy in your favour?

Without a doubt, yes. We want this to be a hostile, intimidating atmosphere where no one wants to come here and play. Horrible. So, Tynie will be on fire Thursday night and I hope it's not a nice experience for our opponents who are coming in.

How different will the test be compared to Omonia?

It will be a different test because it's a different type of team. I don't want to say too much because then I'm going to be giving away things that we might be trying to capitalise on, but there's clear differences between Omonia and Heidenheim in how they play the game, how they approach the game. That's not to say good or bad, right or wrong, there's just differences. Heidenheim are a German team, they're different to Omonia. As I said, we want to be us, we're at home, we want to be consistent in how we play the game, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how our players play in the atmosphere that our supporters create for us.

Do you think Heidenheim will be more physical in terms of physical power?

Yes, I would say so, yes. Playing in the German league, you know how physically demanding that league is, so we're going to have to compete very well in duels and make sure we match their aggression and intensity, because the German teams are well renowned for especially counter-attacking at pace, so we're going to have to be good on the ball. If we're going to lose the ball, then make sure we're losing it in certain areas of the pitch, because if you lose it in certain areas of the pitch, then they're very dangerous. Like I say, we're going to have to be really good with the ball, we're going to have to be mindful of their threats, but we're in a good moment. We showed a lot of character and response at St Johnstone on Saturday from the Kilmarnock game. We've taken a step forward as a group together, that was vitally important, and hopefully again we've got an opportunity now to take another step forward.”

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Heidenheim have made it clear that their priority this season will be staying in the Bundesliga. What are your advantages on that?

I honestly don't know, we'll see. Of course they're in the Bundesliga and they want to stay there, that's vitally important, but you could then say where we are, we want to make sure that we're progressing and getting where we are in the league. I just see it as the next game and it's a game that we're at home and we want to win it. I want to bring a mentality here that every game is important, home and away, whoever we're playing against, this is us and this is how we attack the game. Winning, preparing properly, training properly, breeds that winning mentality that it doesn't matter who you're playing against and what competition you're in, it becomes a consistent way of behaviour, a collective way of thinking, a collective way of behaving. Therefore, as a club, we know what we stand for, we know what to expect. That doesn't mean we're going to win every game, but we can guarantee certain things every time we set foot on the pitch. So far, we've done that. We've got to do it again on Thursday if we want to win.

How's your squad looking? Is everyone okay for the weekend? Anyone due back?

No, no-one's due back. There's been no issues from the weekend, no-one. Everyone trained out there today. Yutaro [Oda] was back on the pitch a little bit yesterday, so was Calem [Nieuwenhof], but very early stages. So they're not going to be ready for this game. But as we were at the weekend, there's been no issues or no injuries from the weekend, so we're fine and we're good to go.

How long do you think Yutaro and Calem are away from being on the first team?

I think Calem's going to be a little bit longer just because of the length of time he's been out, so he's going to need a longer period of time with training. Yutaro, obviously, because it was only just prior to me arriving, I think, so he's had less time. So we'd expect Yutaro to come back sooner. When that's going to be, we don't know. I tell you, he went back onto the pitch yesterday, so he's still going to be a couple of weeks away, I think.

Have you been furnished with details of Hearts against the German opposition at all?

Yes, people have mentioned a Bayern Munich game to me before. Iain Ferguson, is it? I'm aware. Hopefully someone can score a similar type of goal for us on Thursday night and be remembered for a very, very long time. Have I watched the goal on YouTube? I have, yes. Not bad, was it?