Spittal aims to turn 'sour taste' into sweet success

Blair Spittal is on a mission to take care of Conference League unfinished business by beating Rapid Vienna in the Austrian capital tonight. The midfielder was part of the Tynecastle team that failed to make the knockout rounds two years ago despite winning their opening two league-phase fixtures. Hearts' hopes of making it through the play-off are on a knife-edge after last week's 2-2 first-leg draw. "It feels like unfinished business because we didn't get through it," Spittal said. "I think we started the league phase ever so well. I remember there being a stat about what percentage chance we had of going through the group after the first few games. "We managed to muck that up if I'm being honest, so there's a wee bit of a sour taste from that perspective. If we can go through, we can definitely advance to the next round." Hearts came from a goal down at Tynecastle last week, with James McPake levelling before teenage striker James Wilson's spectacular goal gave the hosts a shortlived lead. Spittal expects a similar type of game in the Austrian capital but knows Hearts must be tighter in defence. "We'd like to keep their chances to a minimum," he added. "We've got the capability to score goals, I think you can see that in the last couple of weeks. You can see the progress in the team, so the main thing is that we go out and put on a performance "They were a good team, they were obviously different than Sturm Graz, more possession-based and wanted to play more passes and play with more tempo. "I thought once we came to grips with the first half, it was a wee bit cagey from our point of view and there are things we could have done a lot better. But in the second half, we came out and took the game to them."