Naismith hits out at VAR and hopes it'll be big Hearts point

Nathaniel Atkinson went down in the area following a tussle with Ben Purrington in the first half at Tynecastle Park, and Alan Forrest looked to have been tripped by Ross Laidlaw after rounding the County keeper in the second half - but referee Alan Muir was not sent to the pitchside monitor for either incident.

Goals from Kenneth Vargas and Lawrence Shankland ensured Hearts avoided defeat in Gorgie, but it was largely an afternoon to forget for the men in maroon.

Here's everything Naismith said to the press:

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What did you make of that?

I think you could tell it was a leggy performance, I think the schedule has caught us a wee bit, especially first half.  A lot of our passages of play and passing were not crisp, the touch was poor. That being said we created a few good opportunities in the first half, maybe the final pass was heavy. I thought Ross County looked decent and you could tell they were fresher than us, that was probably the biggest difference at the start. Then we lose two poor goals, we’ve got the ball in the final third, lose it, they go up the pitch and pass it in from five yards then our goal kick leads to a free kick, which they score from. Before that I think we should have had a penalty from two incidences in the first and second half. With the first one with Natty Atkinson, Kyogo gets a penalty here against us by getting his body in front of Cochrane. Today, Natty Atkinson got his body in front of the defender, no penalty given. VAR should see it, don’t.  The second one Al Forrest gets contact. I can understand the referee not seeing it with the speed of play, but VAR has got to see it. I’ve come in and looked at the video and there’s contact, you pause it and there’s contact. It’s no given and it’s not good enough. This is twice before today we’ve had apologies for the wrong decision being made by VAR, rubbish. The positive for us is that we get back in the game and take something from the game.

Do you expect an apology? Have you spoken to the ref?

I think it’s two penalties. I can understand that the referee might not see the decision but the fail-safe is VAR. The first one, his opinion, is it or not? The second one, there is contact, which means it’s a penalty. We might get an apology, Al might get his yellow card rescinded but I’m not sure he’s going to get enough to a suspension. It’s just really frustrating.

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Are you surprised he was so quick to pull the card out?

It’s just like the semi-final, Kingsley got booked rapid similarly to that. But again, you can’t blame the ref. If he thinks it’s a dive then he has to book him. That’s fair enough. But VAR should see it. That’s the frustrating thing. Because of the two penalty instances, we could have given ourselves a chance of winning the game. But overall, we probably didn’t deserve more than a draw. It was a leggy performance from us.

Did Ross County surprise you with how they played?

No, because I think they have been a good team throughout the season that has been unfortunate with some of their results. Yes, they have changed their manager but I saw them in a 3-3 draw with Motherwell earlier in the season and they were a really good team. So they didn’t surprise us. I thought this was probably going to be one of the most challenging games in this period. There are bigger games like the derby and things like that but players are up for that. With this one, the timing of the game, when it is, what we have got to get through to get to it – it was always going to be difficult. So we have got to be pleased with getting something from the game.

It’s the first time this season the team have picked up points from a losing position in the league, that must be a silver lining?

We will look back at the game and there will be positives. Hopefully we are looking back at this at the end of the season and saying it was a big point. It has been a good few years since we have come back from 2-0 down. That’s a positive. But the frustration is that even with how bad we played in the first half, we still had opportunities where we broke through them. We never really took the chance and then the two penalty instances… if we score the first goal then the dynamic of the game totally changes.

Are McKay and Baningime injured?

Beni is not injured, it was more that he was feeling really fatigued. With him being out for such a long period, we didn’t want to risk him breaking down. Baz took a knock the other night and it didn’t seem too serious, but he has had some swelling. He has had a scan and we are still waiting to hear back from the specialist about the extent of it. He won’t be available for Tuesday. Beni will be back involved.

Will Boyce be back?

Probably not, and Grant won’t be either.