Neil Critchley backed January signing Sander Kartum to keep on improving after his magnificent double helped Hearts to a 3-1 victory over Dundee and a fifth Scottish Cup semi-final in seven seasons.
The Norwegian midfielder had the Jambos 1-0 ahead at the break when he curled home his first goal since arriving from Brann.
Captain Joe Shaughnessy equalised for the Dark Blues five minutes into the second half, but Hearts regained command through an own goal from Simon Murray before Kartum – on just his second start for the club – sealed victory with a sublime finish with the outside of his left foot.
“That (ability to shoot) is what we saw in him when we recruited him,” said Critchley. “He’s obviously taken a little bit of time to get up to speed, which is understandable. We’ve seen his quality. that’s been evident in training and he’s been getting fitter and stronger all the time.
“He’s come on from the St Mirren game where he had his first start last week, and I think we saw that tonight. He looks in better rhythm and they were two fantastic goals. I’m not sure how the second one went in really.
“I was expecting him to shoot off his right foot, but when the lefties are normally reluctant to use their right foot.”
Critchley praised his team for the way they responded after being heavily criticised following their 2-1 loss to Edinburgh rivals Hibernian on Sunday.
“I thought it was a really good game, a good cup tie,” he said. “At 1-1 the game’s in the balance, but that was the perfect response from the group from last week. We had to show, again, a lot of character tonight and belief in what we were doing.
“This group continues to do that and we’re making steps forward. We’re in the next round and we can sit back and relax and watch all the others have a stressful weekend.”
Dundee’s wait for Scottish Cup glory now extends into a 116th year and manager Tony Docherty lamented the fact his side failed to kick on and claim victory after getting themselves back to 1-1.
“I was disappointed with the first-half performance,” he said. “I challenged them at half-time, I said I don’t want to go out of a cup being that team that are passive and not aggressive with their passing and pressing. And I thought they came out in the second half and showed that side of them, that bravery and I thought we got them exactly where we wanted them.
“We got the goal back and had real impetus. I thought we had them at that stage. I’m hugely disappointed because I didn’t envisage that (losing the game).”
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