Paul Ritchie: Hearts must bare their teeth in relegation battle

Hearts must find togetherness and fighting spirit if they are to make their superior quality count in the battle against relegation, according to club legend Paul Ritchie.

The Tynecastle side are currently two points adrift of Hamilton Accies at the bottom of the Premiership with a game in hand and three points behind tenth-place St Mirren. Hearts have one of the most expensively-assembled squads in the league, with five current Scotland and Northern Ireland internationalists in their ranks. However, Ritchie, part of Hearts’ 1998 Scottish Cup-winning side and still an avid supporter of the club, insists the players can’t rely on their reputations to save them and must ensure they match the desire of their relegation rivals in the months ahead.

“I’ll be honest, I’m worried – it’s a horrible situation,” Ritchie told the Evening News. “People think Hearts are too good to go down but they are definitely not too good to go down. They’re involved in a dogfight now with teams who have been there before and know how to deal with it. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of togetherness to get out of it.

“It’s not going to be pretty. The supporters are at the stage now where they would happily sacrifice exciting football to get the points required to stay up. It’s about results at all costs now because it would be a disaster if Hearts go down.

“On paper, that team should be in the top half of the table, of course it should. There’s no doubt there are quality players in that squad and now they’ve got to prove their worth. They’ve got to step up to the plate and come together and work for each other. Football’s a team game. You can have the best players in the world but if you’re not working hard and working together then anyone can beat you.”

While hopeful that the influence of Daniel Stendel, who has been in charge for more than two months, will start to bear fruit in the coming weeks, Ritchie is wary that Hearts have been labouring for a prolonged period of time and knows there is no guarantee that they will suddenly spark into life in the coming weeks.

“Winning becomes a habit but so does losing,” said the former defender. “Over the past couple of years at Hearts it’s not been great. The whole club has been in decline with results and performances and it’s not something that can just suddenly be broken. With the facilities, the stadium and the supporters, Hearts have got everything to be a top team in the league but now it needs to start happening on the field. There’s been far too many changes over the last three years for a top-level club.

“It’s going to take time for the new manager to get the team playing the way he wants. Results haven’t been coming for him so far. I thought the result against Rangers would have been that little catalyst to get them going in the right direction but it’s not gone that way. We need a short-term fix just to get us over the line and get us safe and then from there, it’s about finding the right mixture and identity to make Hearts successful again.”