Robbie Neilson pulled no punches in his firm assessment of Hearts' performance against Motherwell - branding it their "worst in a long, long time."
The Tynecastle side fell to a surprise defeat in Lanarkshire as Motherwell made it two wins from two under interim boss Stuart Kettlewell. Goals from Jonathan Obika and Blair Spittal, the latter coming virtually straight from kick-off in the second half, downed the Jambos who now sit just five points ahead of rivals Hibs.
They have two weeks to stew with no game next weekend due to the Viaplay Cup final but Neilson demanded a response against St Johnstone in a fortnight. He hit out at his stars for being "nowhere near" where they need to be as he told Sky Sports after the game: "We were miles off where we need to be. It was our worst performance in a long, long time. There was no consistency, it was slack, it was very disappointing. We've got to be better than that.
"It was massively frustrating (losing the second goal). They get the cross and the flick on and we switch off on the second ball, which we shouldn't do. It's an uphill challenge after that with Motherwell sitting in. Credit to them, they played us well today. They were direct, the two strikers bullied our centre-halves and that was the disappointing thing. We just weren't where we should be and where we have been for the majority of the season.
"We were nowhere near the levels we should be. We were falling over the ball, kicking balls out the pitch, it's not us. We need to get that out our system because we have some massive games coming up starting in two weeks against St Johnstone."
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