Derek McInnes felt his men’s performance in the come-from-behind, 2-1 victory at Livingston was good in parts, particularly the second half when new signings, Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis netted, the game-winning goal from Greek-born player coming in injury time.

The head coach said: “I enjoyed the whole second half, a change of shape helped, but it was more than that.”

He revealed that his half-time team talk re-emphasised “certain points” and he added that in the second period Hearts were far more competitive, made quicker passes across into wide areas and crosses into the box. That is the team I want us to be.

“Everybody loves a late winner, but that is two away games now where we have come from behind.”

McInnes (picured) felt his men dealt with Livingston’s directness and their three big forwards, Tete Yengi, Jeremy Bokila and Robbie Muirhead, and picked up second balls, but he argued that, in the first half, the team did not play with enough tempo.

He said: “Everything was so, pedestrian would be too harsh, but it was not at the tempo that is going to get the job done for us.”

The head coach was “so annoyed” with the goal Livingston scored by Lewis Smith after 26 minutes. McInnes said: “It was too simplistic, it is not good enough. A lot of the video we watched (in the build-up) was him (Smith). We have to do better, to how him the outside as if he comes inside he has to be running into a Hearts player and not having a free shot at out goal from 20-25 yards.

“We have managed to dig ourselves out and win with a strong performance in the second-half, but we can’t keep coming from behind.”

The ex-Aberdeen and Kilmarnock boss felt Hearts were “all right” until the goal, but he added: “You have to defend the goal better.”

Smith’s left-foot strike forced the Jambos coaching staff to scrutinise everything, to question personnel and the coach added: “As an away team coming, we were OK in the first half, but we needed to play with a bit more courage.

“Second-half, we get an early goal, which always helps, and you see the strength of Hearts, you see that with the support, you see what we are as a club, and the game was exactly how I wanted it to be, except but the referee got involved.

“Stop start, no advantage played for both teams, too many stoppages.”