It said everything about the current state of Hearts that Robert Snodgrass made his exit from the Rugby Park press room with these words: “There’s some headlines for you lads, help yourselves.”
He’d just spent the previous eight minutes delivering a brutally honest account of why they’d just lost to 10-man Kilmarnock and cutting to the chase about the Jambos’ failings. Five defeats from their last six games, a once seven-point cushion ahead of the chasing pack in third spot has now been reduced to just one as Aberdeen breathe down their necks.
An exasperated Snoddy fired out some home truths to his teammates, he’s seen enough and the latest capitulation to a side which hadn’t won a Premiership game for two months has hit a crisis point. The former Scotland star has narrowed it down to “moments of madness” which are costing his side as he opted against going for a more diplomatic approach that so many of his peers adopt when undertaking media duties. He said: “Let’s tell it like it is, because that’s the only way to get better. There are 10, 15-minute spells where we don’t play our usual style and have moments of madness that really cost us.
“Against Aberdeen the other week, against Motherwell before that, against Celtic and again here, it keeps happening. We haven’t been good enough, there needs to be a better Hearts team out there.
“We need to have a right good look at ourselves, any successful team needs a togetherness, a never-say-die attitude when you’re not playing well. It’s a demand that comes with wanting to be the third best team in the country.
“The fans travel in large numbers and they don’t deserve what we gave them here.”
One of the remarkable aspects of this Hearts defeat to a spirited Kilmarnock side was
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Robert Snodgrass