Xmas break is cancelled after ‘gutless’ display
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“It wasn’t good enough. We chucked it.”
If the haunted look on Steven Maclean’s face didn’t tell the story, the first words out of his mouth after Hearts’ Friday night flop in Livingston did the job in plain, simple English.
“It’s not acceptable. From every single one of us. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for a Hearts team.
“There are 11 boys in the dressing room that need to take responsibility because it can’t happen again.”
It wasn’t just the fact the Jam Tarts shipped five unanswered goals to Livi – it was the gutless manner in which they did it.
Before falling behind, Craig Levein’s side looked devoid of inspiration, but they were solid enough.
Captain, Christophe Berra – on his 200th Hearts appearance, no less – was marshalling the rearguard smartly, albeit without flair.
But after Craig Halkett smashed Livingston into the lead from the penalty spot, the Jam Tarts crumbled completely.
In the words of their manager, it was an “embarrassing” display – one that, in his opinion, made his side’s humblyresourced opponents “look like PSG”. Veteran striker Maclean, who was visibly distressed by what had just occurred in its unforgiving aftermath, was no less honest.
“There were times when decisions went against us, but there are ways to respond to that,” he offered.
“Their first goal, it looks like a penalty, and we need to regroup, but then the second one goes in.
“After that, we folded like a pack of cards. That’s unacceptable.
“We need to realise if things don’t go our way we can’t just go gung-ho when we’re down to 10 men.
“We left ourselves so open.
“But there was enough experience in there to sort it out and we never did it.”
Six weeks ago, Hearts travelled to face Celtic as Premiership leaders.
They went to the East End of Glasgow full of belief. They came home chastened, on the wrong end of a 5-0 scudding.
With just one win from six subsequent contests, there’s an increasingly compelling case to be made that they have never really recovered from that Parkhead pummelling.
Injuries to key men like the aforementioned Berra, Steven Naismith, John Souttar, and Uche Ikpeazu haven’t helped.
But Maclean (right) was reluctant to reach for excuses in the aftermath of Friday night’s calamity, despite his apparent heartache.
He said: “If 11 individuals don’t to their jobs – or 10 when we lost a man – it is going to happen.
“It’s nothing to do with the manager. It was the 11, then the 10, individuals that have to take responsibility. “We have to apologise to our supporters and to the manager as well. “There’s nothing much more than that we can say. We just have to apologise, then make sure we go and rectify it next Saturday.
“There were words said between the players at the end of the game on Friday, but I think we all know the situation as a team. “We have a massive game against Aberdeen next weekend, then Hamilton, then the derby, so we need to points from these games before the winter break.” What’s done is done.
With apologies offered, the best Hearts can do now is pull themselves together ahead of their trip to Pittodrie next weekend.
They will need to – or Aberdeen will look to punish them. Naismith’s hoped-for return should help.
But the litmus test of whether Hearts have regrouped won’t reveal its results until 4.45pm this coming Saturday when either relief, or yet more criticism, will wash over them.
“It’s pretty much as low as I’ve felt after a game. It’s certainly up there,” said Maclean of Friday’s humiliation.“i think the rest of the boys are feeling it too.
“We got plaudits at the start of the season for how we were playing, but we’d expect criticism after that.
“We’re going to get hammered – and rightly so. It’s about how we react to it.
“We’ve got big characters in the dressing room who can make sure we put it right.”