But when the prospect of a European charge was put to Holt, the Livingston boss immediately set about ensuring none of his players got carried away.

"No, no, definitely not," he said. "We want mathematically safe, guaranteed 10th, guarantees you don't need to worry about anything .

"As soon as it's mathematically impossible for us to go down, we can then have a look and see where we want to end up.

"But our aim as a club is to survive first and foremost and then we can build from there."

Hearts manager Craig Levein spent the opening months of the season facing similar questions about lofty ambitions after their lightning-fast start catapulted them to the top of the table.

Those days were a distant memory as Hearts capitulated after Craig Halkett's 72nd-minute opener from the spot and Arnaud Djoum's red card two minutes later.

Clevid Dikamona earlier became the latest Hearts centre-back to get injured this season when he pulled up with a thigh problem to join John Souttar and Jimmy Dunne in the treatment room. Aaron Hughes came on and struggled along with his team-mates in the final quarter but it was goalkeeper Zdenek Zlamal who sparked the chaos with a reckless attempt to punch clear a long ball, which floored Halkett.

Levein said: "I expect better from every player. OK, we've had some psychological knocks, the penalty which is just stupid.

"As a player, when you see somebody doing something like that, you think it's hard enough without somebody contributing to helping the opposition – which is exactly what Bobby (Zlamal) did.

"He had two or three in first half he could have caught but punched. He had an off night.

"It crept into two or three other players. It does put you off when you see that."

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