Steven Naismith reacts to Hearts Europa League play-off draw as Jambos boss makes 'do all we can' vow

Steven Naismith has offered his reaction to Hearts' Europa League play-off draw.

The Jambos will come up against either Plzen of Czech Republic or Kryvbas of Ukraine in a two-legged shootout to reach the competition proper. The capital club have the insurance policy of the Europa Conference League but they will be determined to dine at Europe's second tier competition table this campaign as the Tynecastle management team begin their immediate research on their potential opponents.

It is a third consecutive European campaign for the Gorgie outfit with experience of group stage football a couple of seasons ago. Last campaign their journey ended in the qualifying route after a play-off round defeat to PAOK following an impressive win over Rosenborg in the Europe Conference League third qualifying round. But it is another European adventure to savour this campaign for the Hearts faithful with group stage football once again guaranteed to be heading for Gorgie.

Reacting to the Europa League draw, Naismith told Hearts TV: “It's two different teams. Plzen have the experience. Last year they did really well, and they’ve been in the Champions League recently, so they’ve got that experience. Kryvbas are probably less known. We know little about them, they weren’t founded many years ago, but they’ll be tough games.

“From now until the games, we’ll do all we can to research them and put a game plan together to get through the tie. There’s an excitement because we’ve worked so hard to get here and now we know the draw, we’re happy with it and we’ll see if we can get through it.

“We’ll research their style, what they like to do and their individual players. If we can watch them, we’ll get them watched. We’re quite big on that, the