Robbie Neilson insists Hearts won't be in win-or-bust Europa Conference League territory tonight against Rigas FS.
The Jambos boss believes last week's 4-0 mauling from Istanbul Basaksehir in their Group A opener at Tynecastle hasn't upped the ante ahead of the clash against the Pot Four Baltic underdogs. Rigas opened their campaign with an impressive draw in Italy against Fiorentina and the Latvian champions are again outsiders to pull off another surprise this evening.
But Neilson is adamant it's far too early for his side to be playing in the last chance saloon against a side which he believes have a recent European pedigree which doesn't square with their minnow status. He said: "It's an important game for us, as they all are. This will be difficult, Riga FS are very experienced. Since we were last in Europe they have played 15 European games. We have to make sure we implement our gameplan here and hopefully that's enough to win the game, but I wouldn't say it's make-or-break. If we win, great. If we don't, then we move on to the next one.
"I wasn't surprised by the result against Fiorentina, RFS are a very well organised team. They can change formations, they can play three at the back or four at the back. They can rotate through that, they have good physicality with very good strength throughout their team. They have good players up front who score a number of goals.
"They had a good last season and they've carried that into the group stage this season.
Hearts faced a two hour delay at Edinburgh airport yesterday before flying to the Latvian capital and Neilson was delighted to have key defender Craig Halkett on board after recovering from a hamstring injury and he's adamant it'll be one factor of many which fuels his belief they can get off and running in Europe.
He said: "I keep going back to it, but the stability of the selection is important for us.
"Craig Halkett coming back in will help us, other than that it will be about getting back to what we are good at.
"That is passing the ball and getting onto good areas and getting our creative players on the ball high up the pitch.
"If we can do that then I'm confident we can get the win.
"We are still very early in the group stage, yes, we were beaten last week and we were very disappointed with the result but we are only one game into a six game group section."
