Hearts boss: We need to fix mental attitude
The pressure is building every week on Daniel Stendel’s relegationhaunted Hearts players.
And the Jam Tarts gaffer fears they are in danger of becoming totally spooked.
Stendel’s side suffered an early collapse against Hamilton Accies yesterday, falling two goals behind after just 15 minutes.
They roared back to claim a late point after Accies were reduced to 10 men.
But Stendel’s concern over how his side started the game was clear to see.
“I expected so much more when I came to the stadium,” said the Hearts boss. “When you feel the atmosphere before the game starts, it’s really positive and you and the players have good feelings.
“They want to do what they think is right but the feeling when we started the game is a click in the head and it changed all that we can do.
“I said to the players that we need to handle this.
“Two things can help. The first is that we have the ball and everyone wants it and the other thing, when we lose it, the players say, ‘We do all to help each other and to stop the attacks’.
“I 100% believe the players want to do it but the impression from the first 30 minutes was not like this.
“We need a positive click in the head when the game starts and at the moment this is the biggest thing for me to do with the players. We can talk and try to help everybody.
“We need to keep positive like the mentality in the second half.
“The team needs to help each other more in the right moments.
“The main thing is not the training on the pitch but to have the mentality side. We need to have concentration from the first moment in the game.
“The situation from week to week is not getting better.
“We need to handle it.” Meanwhile, goal hero Craig Halkett admits Friday night’s clash with fellow relegation battlers St Mirren is now huge.
“Today was a cup final but Friday is like a World Cup final now,” he said.
“We just need to go and do whatever we can to get the three points.
“That’s it at the end of the day – we need three points, nothing more, nothing less. The feeling today is definitely disappointment.
“Coming into the game, knowing the situation both we and Hamilton are in, it was one where we had to take all three points.
“Going in 2-0 down at half-time, the way we started the second half and getting the goal back we thought we could go on and win it.
“But we need to take the point and move on to the next game.”