Steven Naismith cut a frustrated figure after his Heart of Midlothian side let a one-goal lead slip at Pittodrie as the men in maroon lost out 2-1 to Aberdeen.

Naismith was asked about the team's mentality, the momentum shift during the match at Pittodrie, and Craig Halkett's long-awaited return to first-team action.

Here's everything the Hearts head coach had to say...

Is that a sore one? You seemed comfortable for a good chunk of the game but weren’t able to see it out.

Definitely. I'm extremely disappointed. The game starts really well, we are really confident and in full control. To be so far ahead and then be sitting here after a defeat is extremely disappointing. We beat ourselves today, if I'm honest. After being in control for so long and doing so well, we end up getting bullied and that's inevitably what has cost us. As Aberdeen started going more direct, we didn't deal with the first contacts enough or the second balls. Any 50-50 duel, we didn't win enough of them. That gave them a bit of momentum. Ultimately, that's what cost us.

You would expect Aberdeen to throw the kitchen sink at it, were you disappointed that your players didn’t stand up to that battle?

Yeah, and that’s clear. If you want to be a successful team, you've got to deal with that in Scottish football. It's something that does happen a bit in games. You've got to accept it and deal with it. Aberdeen had committed a lot of bodies forward and we didn't do well enough. We showed so much in the first half with how well we did in possession. In the second half, we didn't do the same. That's where a good team picks off the opposition, creates better chances and scores a second goal. We didn't do that. The goals we conceded were really sloppy. We have taken a bit of credit for our defensive displays but today was nowhere near where we've been.

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Everything went well in the first half but the team didn’t seize the initiative in the second half and finish the job off?

When they change and just start going long, and committing percentages in terms of bodies forward, that is difficult to deal with. But if you want to be a good team, you need to deal with that. And in those moments when you can play and pick them off, you got to do it better. We didn't do both sides. It's something that is really frustrating, that we are sitting here discussing something so simple. If you are able to commit and beat the guy you are playing against, we could have been sitting here with a different result. Ultimately we need to learn from this because in terms of being bullied, that's not acceptable.

How do you fix that?

It's a character thing. It's a control thing, when internally there is a bit of pressure. We need to deal with that. We started slashing at clearances when we've got four extra players in that area of the pitch. We didn't play. That you can hopefully deal with but you need to be a tough character if you want to be a successful footballer. You can't hide or shy away from these moments. We need to be that as a group over a period of time. If you're not, then you won't be successful - simple as that.

Was it a positive to get Craig Halkett some minutes?

Personally for him it's a positive that he's back on the pitch, but I'm not looking at many positives here as the goals we conceded are soft. They are rubbish goals, they've not cut us open. It's indecision for the second one and us not dealing with 50/50s for the first one. The first 30 minutes was so good, a lot of really good stuff. The tempo we played at and a lot of what we talked about before the game happened. We're in good control and everybody is feeling good, but the game can't turn that quickly in the second half when they start pumping the ball long.