St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright insists he will not accept “mediocrity” after watching his team fall to a defeat to Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Hearts on Saturday.
Saints struggled to make an impact on the game until the 77nd minute when Ross Callachan gave the visitors hope by halving Hearts’ lead.
Peter Haring and Jimmy Dunne had given Craig Levein’s side a commanding advantage with headers either side of the break but the hosts failed to turn their dominance into more goals.
Despite the challenge of facing the league leaders, Wright admits he expected more from his team.
Wright, whose side was beaten by Celtic in the Betfred Cup semi-finals last Wednesday, said: “It’s not difficult to start well here if your mind’s right and you’re ready for it. They should have been.
“Maybe it’s a mental tiredness from the other night. Hearts worked harder than us.
“And that made it a difficult afternoon for us.
“I’m looking for better from my team.
“We’ve had a chat about that, I’ve told them they can’t accept mediocrity.
“You’d pull your hair out looking at the unnecessary errors we made in the first half.
“I don’t set my standard at running Hearts close. Ultimately we lost the game so that’s not my benchmark.
“I have a good enough squad who – when they perform – can beat Hearts.
“I don’t know what it was. We just lacked something in the first half. At 2-0 down, the chains come off and you can have a go. But it was too late.”
Hearts manager Levein admits he continues to be impressed by midfielder Haring, who notched his fifth goal of the campaign at the weekend, after initially signing the player from Austrian club SV Reid as a centre-back.
He said: “I have been pleasantly surprised with Peter, I knew he was a good player, we did a lot of work on him.
“I knew he was an attacking midfielder when he first started out at Austria Vienna.
“But he has been consistently really good and I think that’s because his game is particularly tailored to the game here.
“He is good at a lot of the things that make you a good midfielder in Scotland. So I have been thrilled with him.”
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