Stendel left stunned by second-half meltdown
HEARTS boss Daniel Stendel confessed to being lost for words to describe his team’s dramatic collapse at McDiarmid Park.
The German admitted: ‘I will need some time to understand what happened in the second half.
‘I thought in the first half we were in control, even when St Johnstone scored I felt we controlled the game.
‘At half-time I told the players if they play the same again they would win, but St Johnstone would come out and try to make an impact. In the second half we played a different game and it was like we had different players on the pitch. We lost our ideas.
‘At half-time I didn’t think I would be saying I’d be happy with a point but when you see the second half I am.
‘It was a nice goal from Sean (Clare) to get us a point and a little positivity was that the players didn’t give up. The mentality of the squad is good.
‘When you see what has happened in the last few months, sometimes there will be downs like we had in the second half.
‘But in Germany we say that when you go down you can come back and go higher, so that is what we want to do.
‘The support the team got from the fans was also good. They pushed the players and that will be a strength if they can help the players in difficult situations.’
Counterpart Tommy Wright was last night waiting on an update about Liam Gordon’s condition after the defender was hospitalised with concussion.
Gordon was injured following an accidental clash of heads with Liam Boyce in the first half and Wright, who also took Scott Tanser off with a thigh problem, said ‘Hopefully he’ll be okay but we are waiting to hear.’
Of the match itself, Wright added: ‘We should have won, totally battered them in the second half. They didn’t deserve anything from the game because we were better, but they got a point with a great strike — although that situation shouldn’t have arisen.
‘We were outstanding, it was a brilliant display in the second half, our energy and quality.’