While glad to be talking just about on field activities at Hearts, Gary Locke was not happy with his team's performance in a 2-0 defeat to St Johnstone at Tynecastle which he branded as "unacceptable". After seeing off Hibs away from home in the League Cup, Hearts fans would have been on a high heading to Gorgie for the visit of the men from Perth. However, it was the fans from over the Forth Bridge that would have headed home the happier after goals in each half from Nigel Hasselbaink and Stevie May saw them pick up three points. The result leaves Hearts still 15 point adrift at the the bottom of the Scottish Premiership after only picking up one point out of a possible 24. Locke has been generally happy with his team's approach this season, apart from the habit of conceding soft goals, and was not too hard on his players after below-par displays in crucial defeats against St Mirren and Kilmarnock. However, after praising them for their derby efforts days earlier, he gave them a post-game dressing down after yesterday's game. Locke said: "The first half I thought we did okay but the start of the second half, and I have just told the players, it was unacceptable. We might be a young team but we have got to do a hell of a lot better than that in terms of the desire to stop crosses coming in. The two goals we lost were really, really poor and we have got to do a lot better. At half-time we were trying to get their heads up and get them going. But they have got to go out on the pitch and get themselves going at times as well. We can't keep trying to get them going at the sidelines all the time, they have got to do a bit themselves. We didn't start the second half well and we owe it to the supporters to put in a far, far better performance because we showed on Wednesday what we are capable of and for some reason we go out and looked a shadow of the team that played on Wednesday night."Locke is looking for a significant improvement when they travel to Pittodrie next Saturday. He said: "We owe it to the supporters. Very rarely this season have I had to have a go at the players because they have given us everything but certainly the start of the second half is something I'm not going to accept."
Source: ScottishFitba
Source: FOOTYMAD
