Hearts 2 Hibs 2: Steven Naismith post-match Q&A in full

Here's everything the Hearts head coach had to say as he spoke to the media after the draw: 

What’s your main emotion?

We are disappointed for sure. Straight after the game you are going to be disappointed because you put so much into the game. I thought for large parts of it, it was a good performance. We carried a threat, the chances we had were really good and we scored two good goals. The biggest disappointment is that we have given up two goals in the space of a minute and a half. That’s ultimately cost us three points and what would have been a very good performance.

Does it feel like you let Hibs off the hook today?

It’s nothing to do with Hibs. It’s us – a minute and a half has just cost us what was a controlled and comfortable performance where we carried a threat the whole time. In time we will look at the performance and take the positives from it, but we can question the decision making when it gets to 2-1. And ultimately our defending is what has cost us the chance to be 2-0 up with 25 minutes to go and control the game, which I thought we did for large parts.

READ MORE: Hearts 2 Hibs 2: Steven Naismith post-match Q&A in full

You must have been happy with Alex Lowry’s contribution?

I’m happy with a lot of them. You’re doing Alan Forrest a disservice if you’re not mentioning him first because I thought he was the best player on the park. He and Alex Lowry have had to be patient and they have had to deal with coming on in games. The two of them have done that really well in the last couple of weeks and that’s why they started today. They have worked hard and I felt that today’s game was well-suited to them – and we were right because we had a good first-half performance. The chances we made were good, they weren’t just half-chances. What we worked on during the week was going to plan, so I was quite pleased with that element of it.

Was Alex tired when you took him off?

I think he was. You could see that – the game was getting a bit more stretched and the decision making… we weren’t keeping the ball when we should be because they were leaving more bodies forward. It gets end to end and you don’t want to lose control of it. But ultimately, it’s a minute and a half of poor decision making and poor defending that has cost us.

How is Stephen Kingsley?

I’ve not had a chance to see or ask about it yet. I think he came off with some sort of groin injury. Time will tell how severe it is. It’s disappointing we are coming away from another game with another injury, that’s for sure.