St Johnstone’s Brad McKay blamed “criminal” defending for a 4-3 defeat in an opening day Tynecastle thriller.
The Hearts old-boy, who started the ball rolling by falling over to hand Robbie Neilson’s men an early lead, believed all four goals should have been prevented.
The mistakes at the back and a groin injury to Chris Millar overshadowed some excellent Saints attacking play and three goals on the road.
But McKay found it hard to focus on the positives after his team had pegged back a 3-1 deficit to make it 3-3, with goals from Simon Lappin, John Sutton and Graham Cummins, only to undo all their good work by conceding a winner within seconds of levelling the scores.
He said: “It was a game we could have taken at least a point from.
“Obviously I’ve made a bad mistake. I’ve slipped and mistakes at that level cost you.
“From what I can remember I took the ball in my feet and just slipped. These things can happen and you’ve got to get back up and get on with it.
“I thought we did well to get back in the game a couple of times but with defending like that we’re not going to pick up many points in this league.
“We caused them a lot of problems physically. I don’t think they coped very well at the back with our physicality.”
McKay added: “It all comes back to the four goals we conceded. It was criminal.
“We showed character to get back into it. When the fans get going here it can be very difficult for the away team but we did well.
“If we had defended better we’d have won the game. It’s as simple as that.
“I know they looked clever going forward but we gifted them every goal, and that’s just not good enough.
“We didn’t follow the penalty in, there was my slip, no-one went with Calum Patterson for his goal when he initially won a header and he gets on the end of the through ball, then the cross should have been stopped for their fourth.
“It’s all things that shouldn’t happen.
“When the fixtures came out it was one I was looking forward to. It’s a shame it has gone the way it has because I thought we deserved to win.”
Spanish striker Juanma was impressive for Hearts up front, but McKay believes he will have to cut out unnecessary theatrics from his game.
He said: “He’s a typical foreigner. He gets touched and he goes down. He was holding the back of his head and rolling about the place. He’ll win penalties and free-kicks in dangerous areas but I don’t think he can keep that up.
“The Hearts fans will get on his back as well. He did well with a couple of their goals but I don’t think they appreciate going down so easily. I don’t think anyone does in Scotland.
“As a defender you don’t mind a tussle, but obviously he doesn’t like that. He’s going to have to get used to it.”
Tommy Wright, meanwhile, does not yet know the extent of Millar’s injury.
He reported: “These things are best left to settle for 24 hours before we make a better judgment on how long he is going to be out.
“It’s a bit concerning it’s the groin again. He has played a lot of football over the last three or four years so we need to have a look again at how we manage it.”
Like McKay, Wright was aware of his team’s failings, but also saw much to be encouraged about.
He said: “If you had said to me you will score three goals at Tynecastle and not take something out the game I wouldn’t have believed you. But we haven’t.
“We made mistakes and only have ourselves to blame for that. But there was a lot of good play in there.
“John Sutton and O’Halloran were magnificent up top and I am pleased John got his goal he was unlucky with another one cleared off the line.
“I’m really pleased to score three goals, but ultimately we lost the game.”