Hearts head coach Neil Critchley says he felt like he had “been through a tumble dryer” after his side were beaten by 10-man Kilmarnock to remain bottom of the Scottish Premiership.
Kilmarnock defender Robbie Deas was sent off after just six minutes for a challenge on Kenneth Vargas, but Hearts went behind 12 minutes later when Bruce Anderson scored a penalty.
Despite plenty of time to get back into the game, though, the Tynecastle side ended the match with only four attempts on target.
“I’m not frustrated, I’m more than frustrated – I’m stunned and shocked by that performance,” Critchley told BBC Scotland.
“I’ve not seen that from this group in my time here. That was miles away in every department.
“We started brightly and then the sending off changes the game, and the next 10 minutes we got too emotional with the ball and made poor decisions. We made poor decisions off the ball, which cost us the game.”
Critchley took charge of Hearts in October after Steven Naismith was dismissed following a winless start to the campaign, but has added just three victories from nine league games since.
The club do have the chance to reach the knockout stage of the Conference League on Thursday at home to Petrocub of Moldova.
However, their domestic form continues to stutter as they sit bottom of the league, one point behind St Johnstone.
Only Ross County have scored fewer league goals than Hearts this season, and again they toiled to create chances, registering an expected goals rating of just 0.88 despite playing with a man advantage for 90 minutes at Rugby Park.
“We did nowhere near enough, we played in front of them and square and around too often,” Critchley added.
“It was devoid of any ideas, it was an unacceptable performance. I’ve got so much going through my head, like I’ve been through a tumble dryer.
“We had enough attacking players on the pitch. We never played with personality, someone has to make something happen on the pitch and we didn’t.
“It was like we accepted the situation and accepted we were going to lose. I’ve said to the players that can never happen again.”
Hearts fans, what did you make of your team’s performance against 10 men?
Are you concerned by the club’s league position at this stage of the season?
