A furious Stephen Robinson labelled St Mirren’s display in their 4-0 defeat to Heart of Midlothian “unacceptable” and said it needs to be a wake-up call for his players.
The Buddies looked nothing like the side that secured European qualification last season as they failed to lay a glove on the Jambos.
St Mirren did not test Craig Gordon once all afternoon on Neil Critchley’s managerial debut at Hearts, with a visibly furious Robinson claiming his side “beat themselves”.
“The performance level wasn’t acceptable at all,” Robinson said.
“Hearts didn’t need a new manager, they didn’t need to play particularly well to beat us. We beat ourselves. For the first goal, we lost the ball and didn’t react. The second is a great goal but we ran into each other for the third.
“Then in the fourth, we gave the ball away again. Hearts didn’t need to beat us – we did it ourselves. Ultimately I put the team out and I’m to blame but some of the decision making wasn’t acceptable.
“Senior players have made decisions that aren’t good enough and we need a response to that. Otherwise, this will be a long season. The players have been told in no uncertain terms that isn’t good enough. We got into Europe by playing a certain way and knowing what we are good at.
“We played a certain way and now we aren’t that. Suddenly, we think we might be a European side. We are not. You need to do the basics right and we didn’t. It should have been a wake-up call three or four weeks ago but this is a proper one.”
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Meanwhile, new Hearts boss Critchley lavished praise on teenage forward James Wilson after the academy graduate scored his first professional goal.
The 17-year-old netted Hearts’ third goal and is widely regarded as a massive talent with the potential to become a first-team regular in the next few seasons.
Hearts fended off interest from Rangers, Celtic and several English clubs to secure Wilson on a new deal last year and Critchley expressed his delight at the landmark moment in the youngster’s career.
“James has been a real live wire in training,” Critchley said.
“What he does is stretches the game. There’s no better feeling than seeing one of your own on the pitch. And I’ll repeat, I’m not doing it because it looks good, I’m doing it because I think they’re good enough, it’s the right thing to do.
“Yeah, I was absolutely delighted for James, but for all the players the squad has been fantastic this week.”
