Hearts’ manager Ian Cathro and midfielder Jamie Walker both apologised to Hearts’ fans after last night’s derby defeat to Hibs in front of a full house at Easter Road.
Furious supporters booed the team off at half time when they were two goals down and a significant number left the stadium after Andrew Shinnie added a third.
Several Hearts’ scarves were thrown onto the field and hundreds took to social media to criticise the players and manager.
Immediately after the final whistle, Cathro faced a packed press room and admitted that his players hadn’t performed well.
He said: “We’ve made a very big mistake in thinking quite simply, over-estimating where we are. We’ve lost the game because we didn’t have the level of fight, didn’t win the second ball, didn’t have the speed.
“We didn’t turn up to the fight at the start of the game. That’s something we need to accept.It’s not that we don’t possess those qualities, but we’ve overestimated where we are.
“We can be quite certain we will make it up to people. We will do that by never, ever, ever, ever, ever allowing even five minutes of the game where the opponent win things easily.
“We can never, ever go through even five minutes of a game the way it was in the first half there.
“We learned lots of lessons. We know this is an amazing football club with tremendous ambition and leadership, but now it’s going to be a bit further in the future. We’ve taken a couple of steps back tonight.
“We’ve caused a lot of people who love the club to hurt. I’m sorry for that.”
Jamie Walker was one of the few Hearts’ players who gained pass marks for his performance and took over the captaincy from Perry Kitchen at half-time.
His disappointment was clear to see at the final whistle when he sank to his knees before sportingly congratulating the Hibs’ players.
He said: “We need to apologise to the fans.We have let everyone down at the club, it is not good enough for a club like Hearts o come here and lose 3-1.
“Everything went wrong. We were outfought and outplayed. It is sad to say but it’s the truth and it is not good enough.
“I’m not sure why that was, maybe they have more boys who know what this game means like I do.
“It’s disappointing. For a football club like Hearts I don’t think that was good enough.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
