Hearts squad 'behind manager Neil Critchley' despite league and cup disappointments

The Jambos exited the competition at Hampden in heartbreaking circumstances after Oday Dabbagh scored the winner for the Dons in the 118th minute. They played with ten men from 44 minutes onwards due to Michael Steinwender’s red card and were then reduced to nine on 116 minutes when Cammy Devlin was dismissed for two bookings.

Hearts missed out on the top six of the Premiership last weekend, with some supporters calling for Critchley to be sacked, and defeat at Hampden has done little to change the narrative that the Tynecastle outfit have not won a high-stakes match since he took over in October. However, Baningime says that he does not want to be associated with constant managerial changes and believes the performance against the Dons shows that the squad are playing for him.

“I think it's been a strange season for us,” said Baningime. “Every time I've been here, I've been here for four seasons, and it's the only season where I'm like, oh my days, what's going on?

“We're always top six in the last two out of three seasons. We've been third comfortably. So we're a great side. Aberdeen are fifth, I believe. We are seventh at the moment but I don’t think there is anything between us.

“Obviously, we've put ourselves in that situation. But, yes, we are playing for the manager. You obviously saw that because if we weren't playing for the manager, then we would have bottled it and we could have lost three, four or five. But we didn't and so we're all behind him.”

Asked whether Critchley should be given more leeway from the supporters, Baningime continued: “I think that's up to the fans for them to decide, that's not really up to me. I know the fans can be harsh, but there's expectation and there’s expectation from the players, from the coaching staff also.

“We don't want to be seventh. It's not good enough. So that isn't just on the manager. It's on all of us. Before the manager came, we didn't win in eight games or something. It was the worst in history, so that's on us. Before the manager was here, it was a problem. I don't just think it's the manager, I think it's all of us. Obviously, today we've done ourselves proud, but there's been games where we haven't.

“The worst thing for me is to keep changing managers. My mum and dad raised me well. They raised me to take responsibility for myself and they raised me like that.

“For a man to lose his job, let's just say, in general, this has nothing to do with football, it has nothing to do with the gaffer, I'm just making that clear. You don't want anyone losing their job and you don't want to be part of a team that continually does that.

“I don't believe that's going to be the case, of course. I'm saying this because I'm a [Manchester] United fan and that happens a lot. I wouldn't want to feel that way and think, ‘okay, maybe I'm potentially responsible for that’. I know we're not really talking about the manager losing his job, but I don't want to be part of a group that does that.”