Frankie McAvoy in bullish Hearts message as he tells brave Jambos to believe in Rosenborg comeback

Frankie McAvoy insists it’ll be ‘game on’ in Gorgie next week after Lawrence Shankland’s late strike threw Hearts a Europa Conference League third round lifeline.

The Jambos head coach believes the tie remains more than salvageable despite a 2-1 defeat to Rosenborg in Norway last night thanks to the Scotland hitman, who celebrated his 28th birthday by nodding home to reduce the deficit after Emil Frederiksen and Jayden Nelson had the Norwegians in command. All eyes will now turn to Tynecastle for a return leg with a place in the play-off round the prize, and McAvoy is adamant there was plenty of evidence the tie can be rescued with the Hearts fans also having a key role.

He said: “The tie is alive, which was the most important thing when we were 2-0 down at half-time. The important part was doing our utmost not to concede again but to be a threat going forward. I felt in the first half we had a lot of possession, but it was safe, we didn’t play enough in behind them.

“We knew they’d be a threat in transition but we made a couple of errors of judgement and we got punished. And we’ll take responsibility for that because we ask them to be brave on the ball.

"We ask them to break lines and try and puncture the opposition. So that’s on us. We’ll continue to do that. We had a lot of the ball and I felt in the second half we had it in better areas and caused them more issues.

“But I did say they’re a decent team. It’s set up nicely for coming to Tynecastle next week. Hopefully there will be a full house. The fans were magnificent here from start to finish. I thought it was a good, competitive game and we’re looking forward to next week.”

A poor first 45 minutes from Hearts had them trailing by two goals and looking down and