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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
Sport
Ryan Thom

Andy Halliday on missing Hearts element during European campaign as he sets post World Cup target

Andy Halliday believes Hearts have been missing some luck in their tough Europa Conference League Campaign.

Halliday got the rub of the green as his deflected shot helped the Jambos on their way to a 2-1 over RFS as they ended their six game winless run. His strike followed shortly after another goal for Lawrence Shankland as Hearts overcame the Latvian's at Tynecastle. Robbie Neilson's men knew they were already out of Europe's third tier before kick off, but their battling performance spelled the end to a poor run of results.

And Halliday believes things could have been different had Tynecastle club enjoyed more moments of fortune as they were swept aside by Fiorentina and Istanbul Başakşehir in the early exchanges. Halliday said: "In these European games you need a bit of luck. I thought we got that against RFS, which is something that has deserted us over the last few weeks.

READ MORE: Hearts OUT of Europa Conference League as Fiorentina win dumps Jambos from competition

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" I was actually moaning before the game that I’m 31 years old and I have never scored a deflection! That’s embarrassing! So getting that deflected goal was obviously that little bit of luck we needed.

“We had a couple of chances to make it a bit more comfortable, but they had chances as well and we had to dig deep. We’re down to the bare bones already, but sometimes those are the most satisfying wins.”

Halliday hopes Hearts can bounce back stronger after the World Cup break, with the injury list at Tynecastle continuing to pile up.

He continued: “We want to pick as many points as we can up to the World Cup break and close that gap if we can and get bodies back and have a real go at it after the break.

"I don’t think there’s any doubt we’re capable of doing that, hopefully starting this weekend, Ross County haven’t had the results they were expecting. We played them in the first game of the season and they were Barcelona for 45 minutes!

“So we know they have players who can hurt us, but if we turn up we’re more than capable of getting results, that’s for sure.”

READ NEXT:

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- Hearts planning January transfer activity as Robbie Neilson outlines aims for winter window

- Hearts hero Colin Cameron explains 'strange' connection with Hibs favourite after football return

- Hearts fight valiant Celtic battle but lose out in VAR dominated thriller - three things we learned

- Hearts tie down Finlay Pollock to long-term deal as Joe Savage lists key attributes

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