'I know our fans will get behind Neil' - McKinlay

Andrew McKinlay is "encouraged" by the response from the Hearts fanbase following the appointment of Neil Critchley as head coach.

The 45-year-old was unveiled earlier on Tuesday as Steven Naismith's successor.

In recent days, there has been a lack of excitement from sections of the fanbase after talks with Per-Mathias Hogmo broke down.

However, the chief executive doesn't subscribe to such negativity and instead enthused by fans' reaction.

"You talk about this negativity, I’m actually quite encouraged by quite a lot of what I've been hearing and reading today since we made the announcement," McKinlay said.

"I know our fans will get behind Neil and will wish him all the best. We all want to come together as one and I'm very, very positive. The fans, I think, will be too."

McKinlay also stressed Critchley was the "preferred candidate" all along and the only person Hearts held negotiations with.

"Neil was the preferred candidate from an analytics perspective and also when we spoke to him, it was very clear he was the right person to work with us, Graeme and the analytics," he added.

"We spoke to Neil at the back end of last week and over the weekend.

“We didn't negotiate with anyone else. There was a lot of talk but Neil was the only person we negotiated with."