Hearts midfielder Cammy Devlin says that the players must own up and accept responsibility for yesterday's derby day defeat to Hibernian, and apologised to the Jambos fanbase.
Kevin Nisbet's goal 23 minutes from time consigned the Tynecastle side to a sixth straight defeat in all competitions in interim boss Steven Naismith's first game in charge, following the sacking of Robbie Neilson earlier this week.
That poor run of results has seen Hearts relinquish that coveted third spot in the Premiership table to a resurgent Aberdeen, who now hold a five point advantage over their Edinburgh rivals. 24-year old Devlin, who was a member of Australia's 2022 FIFA World Cup squad, admits the recent performances have been well short of what is expected and concedes that the team are making the same mistakes time and time again.
READ MORE: Hibs 1 Hearts 0 as Jambos' poor run continues, third place slipping away - 3 things we learned
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Speaking to the Daily Record, he said: "That might be the case. At 0-0 that was when we had to show that we are good players. Naisy wants us to be brave and to play football and to really get smiles back on our faces because ask any football around the world and they will tell you they are playing their best when they are smiling and enjoying it.
"That is no different for us. There were moments when we did that and you could feel the flow going but no excuses we just didn’t do enough. As you can imagine everyone is devastated. Naisy just spoke to us then and we are all devastated, we have lost a few in a row and we have just lost a derby which means so much to our fans. We have let them down."
Devlin also feels that Hearts were unable to showcase what they had worked on in training in the lead-up to the derby fixture. He added: "The training week was really good, the energy was up and it felt like the spirits were up. Coming here even if we had won ten in a row or lost ten in a row, we would want to win. It is the biggest game for us and I am just so disappointed.
"There were moments in the game where we implemented the style of football that Naisy wants well but overall we have only ourselves to blame. We conceded off a set-piece again and probably didn’t create enough. To be fair Hibs defended their box well but we didn’t do enough in the final third to score a goal."
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