HEARTS manager Neil Critchley has admitted the Tynecastle club will hold talks with James Wilson about a new contract after the teenage striker came off the bench to score a late equaliser in the Edinburgh derby against Hibernian at Easter Road today.
The Gorgie side were far from their best in Leith this afternoon and fell behind when substitute Mykola Kuharevich netted at a Junior Hoilett free-kick in the second half of the William Hill Premiership fixture.
But Wilson, who replaced Malachi Boateng after the visitors had fallen behind, pounced with just three minutes of regulation time remaining to send the away supporters in the South Stand into raptures.
Critchley confessed he is a big admirer of the 17-year-old Scot, whose current agreement with his boyhood heroes runs out in the summer, and is keen to keep him at Hearts long-term.
“I hope so, yes,” said the Englishman. “I've been really impressed with James since I've come in. Good kid, always smiling, breath of fresh air. When you need a goal and you need a bit of energy at the top end of the pitch, I'm delighted to get a chance to turn around and put him on the pitch.
“I was ribbing him afterwards because I'm still not convinced it was his goal. He says it's his obviously and I hope it is his and it looks like it was his. I've not seen it clear enough to see whether it was or it wasn't, but that's him.
“He's a goal scorer, he's a goal poacher. Alan [Forrest] got a lovely little touch, first contact, and it sort of took a deflection and then James is there. That's what goal scorers do. They just arrive in the right position at the right time and they find a way of hitting the back of the net.
“The lads love him. He settled into the group really well. What a fantastic moment for him, right in front of all the supporters there, to go and pick the ball out of the back of the net and celebrate how he did. I'm sure he'll remember that for a long time."
Critchley continued: “Obviously a part of recruitment is retaining your best players and particularly your young players. So I'm sure that [a contract extension] is something we'll discuss. It has been mentioned.
“It's on the radar of the people around me at the club because, one, you want to give young players an opportunity, but also if they do do well, then you want to reward them. But they have to earn that as well.”
Critchley, the former Queens Park Rangers and Blackpool manager who enjoyed wins over St Mirren and Omonia Nicosia in his first two games in charge of Hearts, saw his perfect record come to an end against Hibs.
But he stressed that he had relished his first taste of the Edinburgh derby – even the abuse he received from the home supporters behind his dugout - despite the final scoreline.
“I loved it, loved the whole experience,” he said. “The hostility, some of the things that were said to me, were quite enjoyable.
“I loved watching the team play today. I want us to be a team that always plays our way, that never gives up our way of playing, whether we're playing home or away, whoever we're playing against.
“That's sometimes more difficult when they're playing against certain teams or in big atmospheres away from home like today. But I felt we came here and showed who we want to try and be consistently. We've just got to keep working at it. We're at the infancy of our development as a group under my coaching and hopefully we're going to keep improving.
Critchley added: “We got into some really dangerous, threatening positions and failed. Our quality and decision-making let us down. We didn't keep the ball in the final third for long enough. That was the message at half-time - make a few more passes in the final third. We were wasteful in the first half.
“I felt we started to do that in the second half, we started to push Hibs back. So to concede how and when we conceded was hugely disappointing. But I'd say our character after that was brilliant and I think we were deserving of a point.”
