Stephen Kingsley reveals Hearts dressing room blowout before Robbie Neilson sacking as he roars 'things need to change'

A helicopter hovered over Tynecastle as Hearts were in the midst of a fifth straight defeat – and a sixth loss in seven – and there were some audible jokes.

There was no banner steaming from the aircraft as has been the case in times gone by under Robbie Neilson’s charge. But there were chants for the beleaguered manager to go. And the axe finally fell on Sunday afternoon after the club made “an extremely difficult decision” to part company with their manager. Some context to the latest calamity as St Mirren won in Gorgie for the first time in a decade is the current run hasn’t been this bad since the winter of discontent under Daniel Stendel when they suffered a handful of consecutive losses.

In freefall and with an Edinburgh derby on the horizon this weekend remains a potential landing point to relaunch their campaign. This drama shouldn’t deflect from a superb showing by the Buddies who remain on course for uncharted top-six territory. But there was a no-holds-barred dressing room summit by Hearts players and staff that was still in session more than an hour after the full-time whistle and Stephen Kingsley admitted home truths were delivered.

The defender said: “It’s been coming, that is six of the last seven games we’ve been beaten. We had a wee meeting in the changing room after but to be honest, these things need to change, the penny needs to drop.

“We thought we’d been through that spell, trying to get things sorted for this game and get the win. But it seems it’s the same mistakes again so there’s only so much you can say about it. Everything needs to stay in house in the next couple of days, a couple of things need to be addressed and we need to go and win, nothing else can be accepted next week now and then