While Critchley has raised the hearts of the bottom of the table since he was appointed chief coach in October, he was forced to recognize anger since the end of what he admitted was “a greatly disappointing day.”
“We are all frustrated, greatly frustrated,” he said. “It’s not just today. You have to look at other performances and other games that we could have obtained something.”
Hearts is lost despite looking for the first six after defeating St Mirren 3-1 at the end of February.
“I don’t think there is much bad,” Critchley said. “We have shown a lot of progress and this game cannot define ourselves as a group or our season.”
The former Hearts midfielder, Michael Stewart, “received some sympathy” for English.
“I think things have improved, but there are fundamental failures in that team,” he said.
Stewart, not for the first time, highlighted the lack of rhythm and the need for a striker to help during the recession of Shankland in shape, problems that are not solved during Critchley’s first transfer window in January.
“Why the club never signed another striker is beyond me,” he said. “I think that is the source of many of the problems here.
“It has become a fugitive train and Lawrence Shankland has not been able to direct it to the track.”
Critchley pointed out that he has a semifinal of the Scotland Cup against Aberdeen to wait, but the hearts now only have six Dundee points in the place of descent play-off after having played one more game.
“The lower six will be an absolute blood bath,” Stewart predicted. “The chances of hearts being relegated are very thin, but the discouragement that will surround Tynecastle will be enormous.”
As for Motherwell, the BBC experts were not ananinisos that, whether or not they avoid the descent, Wimmer’s summer task will be drastically to reduce a fan squad of 36 players.
The Austrian, who was appointed in February after the resignation of Stuart Kettlewell, was philosophical about missing the first six.
“To be honest, I have no reason to disappoint, because we could not influence the result of San Mirren,” he said. “In the end, I can say that it was in many periods a good performance of us.
“I saw players disappointed in the costumes, which I can understand why they have been here for 33 games and, for me, there are only seven games.”
