Robbie Neilson insists Hearts must start taking individual responsibility after defeat on the road at Kilmarnock. The Jambos boss believes a run of just one win from their last six games boils down to his players looking in the mirror and asking what more they can do for the club.
Aberdeen narrowed the gap to only one point from the third placed Edinburgh side and Neilson is adamant the cure for recent ills must come from within. He said: "We can talk about tactics, we'll do this and that, but it's player against player. If we look at the game today, if everyone looks individually and says 'did we play better, out muscle or out fight the player we were playing against' they would probably say no.
"That shouldn't happen at Hearts and that's where we need to be ready for it next week because next week it will be the same, It will be a very difficult game against St Mirren, the same style of football, two big strikers, aggressive, and we will have to deal with that.
"Sometimes you go through these periods. It can happen quickly in football. We don't go forward quickly, we choose more of a negative pass than a positive pass, you have these periods.
"Look, you can talk the talk and say 'we are going to do this and we're going to talk about that, analyse all this stuff' but it's all nonsense. It's about turning up on a Saturday and winning football matches. We didn't do enough to do that.
"How do you get them to do thatI could sit here and talk about 'we're going to do this, this and this' but at the end of the day it is a lot of nonsense. It's about making sure we are ready for next week's game and that for me comes from everyone individually."
Neilson also responded the boo boys who hit out at the Hearts players following the loss.
Speaking to Sportsound, Neilson said: ""[The fans] have got every right to be angry, we're angry as well. Today, we didn't perform well enough.
"We have to keep fighting. This football club has fought through so many difficult periods. It's important we stick together and keep giving everything for the club."
Neilson also admitted the failure for keeper Zander Clark to emerge after the interval on the back of two goalkeeping errors was down to injury.
He said: “It’s his hamstring but to be honest it’s too early to say. The hope is it’s just a nerve. We won’t know until a couple of days’ time. The medical staff went on and thought it was just mild and that he might be able to get through it. Obviously, it wasn’t.”
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