Fuming Shaun Maloney delivers brutal Hibs home truths as he blasts 'I won't accept that'

Shaun Maloney savaged his Hibs side after surrendering a lead to Hearts and dropping into the bottom six.

The Easter Road boss insists he won't accept the manner of the collapse from his players who went down 3-1 with a whimper in the Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle.

As a post mortem began on the Leith side being consigned to seventh spot at the Premiership split, Maloney admitted his disappointment at the failure of his side to react to the game's decisive moments.

He said: "What was most disappointing was that the two big moments in the game, just before half-time and straight after, had too big an impact on how we played.

"We were very good in parts of the first half, but we can't allow a set-play goal in the second half, after a couple of minutes, to then completely alter how we played and the mentality of the team.

"That's the biggest disappointment. The performance in the second half, I can't accept, and I won't.

"I understand at this time of the season, the results are even more magnified but I think, when I came in and we were seventh, I saw traits that at times we've eradicated but what you saw today in big, big moments under the biggest pressure, these traits come out. "And that's why we find ourselves in seventh again.

"We've really struggled in that final area, and I know we have some young players who have to learn, but they have to learn very quickly. We've got an opportunity next week to put things right so we have to learn very, very quickly.

"We conceded a set-play, that can always happen. At times in the first half we were very good but we can't then allow a set-play goal to completely change that. It completely changed our performance in terms of how we competed and that can't happen."

Maloney will