The angry reaction from some Hearts fans to Thursday’s UEFA Conference League defeat in Belgium is a hot topic in Edinburgh. Players and coaches heard the chants during and after the 2-0 loss at Cercle Brugge. The frustration is not lost on any of them. However, defender Frankie Kent is making an appeal to the club’s supporters ahead of Sunday’s league fixture against Aberdeen.

The match at Tynecastle is vitally important as Hearts attempt to navigate a route away from the bottom of the Premiership table. Their visitors sit merely two points off the top. Kent is fully aware that Hearts need their public behind them to garner a result. He stood in front of the away end in the Jan Breydel Stadium surveying the visible and audible anger from more than 3,000 fans. The Englishman feels there is only one way to go forward from here.

“Listen, I will be careful what I say, but one thing that we all appreciate is how much the fans love coming to our games and the support that they give us,” said Kent. “We 100 per cent get that and understand that and we love it. Listen, we went into Bruges on Thursday and met a load of them, pictures and all this stuff, and we know that they love it and everyone loves it when it’s good. We’re getting praise and this and the other, but we’ve got to suck it up and take the s**t that comes with it.

“They are entitled to their opinion, 100 per cent. All I would say and all I would ask is, for the changing room and for the club going forward, we’ve got to stick in this together. Listen, be annoyed because we haven’t won enough games this year and I appreciate that. Everyone appreciates that. Every player in that changing room understands that. We haven’t won enough and we haven’t done well enough. But in my opinion, if we stick in this together and they give us the support like they normally do, it doesn’t turn, it doesn’t go the other way.

“We get behind players that are not having the best of times at the minute, not getting the rub of the green and players that have got us to this point where we are, then that will be a longer effect and a bigger effect. We take the responsibility for giving them something to cheer about and shout about. But that’s all I would ask.”

The player suffering more criticism than most is captain Lawrence Shankland. A missed penalty late in Thursday’s game with Cercle 1-0 ahead triggered a furious response from some fans. He scored 28 goals and 31 Hearts goals respectively over the last two campaigns but is struggling to reproduce that form this term.

“As you can probably imagine, he’s not in the best of ways but again, I reiterate it, this team and this club wouldn’t be here [in the Conference League] if it weren’t for him. We know that and I hope the fans know that. He’s going through a sticky spell. We’re behind him. All I would ask is just if they get behind him because, like I said, that geezer has put us where we are now.

“Even the year before, he put us into that position with the amount of goals he scored and how well he’s done in play. So, no-one’s got anything against Shanks. I reiterate it, he’s the main man. He’s the geezer that got us to where we are. So, as a club and as a team and as players and as everyone, we need to get behind him and get behind the team to make sure it turns.”

The notion that Thursday’s match was the same old story of missed scoring chances is not entirely endorsed by Kent. “No, I wouldn’t say. It’s everything,” he replied. “We’re conceding s****y goals, crappy goals that are either lucky on their part or not good enough on our part. It’s not coming off for us. I can’t put a finger on it. But, like I said, I’ve been in this position, I spoke to you guys before about it and just said it needs to change. The responsibility is on us to do that and we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it quick.

“We have a lot of games and this is what we wanted last year. We all worked so hard to get here and do that. So, now it’s on us to suck it up and get on with it. Sunday is a big game. I’ve been in football long enough to know and understand that football can change very quickly. I know for a fact that it hasn’t been good enough and it’s not where we want to be. But it’s on us to change that and I can’t really say anything else in terms of that, really.”