St Johnstone boss Craig Levein declared himself pleased with his side's performance in the 1-0 loss to Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle Park but asked the question: "What do you do with [Liam] Boyce and [Lawrence] Shankland if they get a chance?"

Boyce appeared to score the only goal of the game in the second half but it turned out to have gone into the back of the net off of the Hearts captain.

Levein also expressed his disbelief at an impressive Zander Clark save in the first half to deny Luke Robinson.

READ MORE: Hearts 1 - 0 St Johnstone instant analysis: Grant gamble, big 3 points, struggles

"The first 15 minutes was a little bit of a disappointment for me because we didn't really get going at all," he said. "I think we were nervous but after that we had a chance and it seemed to settle everybody down and after that we were never out the game at all. It's a bitter-sweet feeling because we did a lot of things well.

"The work-rate was fabulous, it really was. It was a really competitive match. Our midfield in particular was really good and we got things out of it that we'd been working on the training good, and defensively we were good but we didn't get the points and that's the most important thing.

"We were in the game at all times even after the goal, but what do you do with Boyce and Shankland if they get a chance? We tried to stop them getting chances and that was one of the things I was really pleased about. Apart from that opportunity we restricted them to very little but they're just so good at putting the ball in the back of the net. We fell foul to that today. "

READ MORE: Penalty decisions, Hearts consistency, breaking down stubborn defences - Naismith Q&A

Levein revealed the management team made a small tweak to the midfield set-up earlier on with Matt Smith, who had been tasked with stopping Beni Baningime getting on the ball, pulled deeper to flatten the midfield three.

The former Hearts boss also spoke about his reception.

"I was expecting to get a little bit of stick but it didn't really materialise, I was a wee bit disappointed," he smiled. "I need to have a word with the Hearts fans about that."

Hearts Standard is running its best-ever offer for Black Friday, where you can take out a year's subscription for just £10 to support us in everything that we do. For full access to our exclusive interviews, detailed analysis, in-depth features and informed opinion pieces, check out the link HERE.