When Dylan Tait took advantage of a Heart of Midlothian defensive calamity to put Falkirk 2-0 ahead in the Premier Sports Cup tie it prompted a large evacuation of the 1996 visiting fans.

They had understandably seen enough as their team's winless start to the season continued.

On the pitch, there were plenty of stern words and gesturing as players tried to work out how the concession of the goal happened. While Craig Gordon took a free-kick short to Stephen Kingsley, substitute Jorge Grant was instructing Malachi Boateng to move over to the right flank. It simply spiralled from there.

"We’d just made a sub and we didn’t reorganise quick enough," Gordon explained. "There were 10 minutes to go, we were trying to play quickly and we just didn’t get the set-up right. We put ourselves under pressure, which we really didn’t need to do.

"That was disappointing, because at 2-0 down it’s a long way back."

In the end, there was no way back. They exited the League Cup, stretching Hearts unenviable record in the competition even further.

Now, not only have Steven Naismith's side not won any of their opening three games. Stretching back to last season, they have won just once since the middle of April, a run of nine competitive fixtures.

While visibly despondent on the side of the Falkirk Stadium pitch, Craig Gordon's message was simple and straightforward: Hearts have to find a way to win games of football.

"It’s a collective responsibility to win games," he said. "We’ve not managed to do that at the start of this season and we have to find a way to start winning matches.

"Chances aren’t going in at one end and we’ve lost a couple of goals at the other, so we need to get back to winning again. Once we do that and get some confidence from that I can see us going on to have a successful season. But we need to get started."

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Hearts are coming up on a period of four games in 11 days. Away in Europe and away in the league before back-to-back games at Tynecastle Park. There is ample opportunity for the last two matches to be consigned to the 'let's never speak of these ever again' box of pain. But as fans will quickly point out, it is one thing saying things need to improve or change but it requires action on the pitch to actually do it.

Gordon believes it is achieved by the squad coming together, sticking together and fighting for one another.

"We have to be up for the fight, especially away from home. You have to be physically able to handle the occasion," he said.

"We’ve got a European game coming up and no one should need lifted for that. It’s a huge opportunity for us against a very good team and we’ll need to stick together. We need to come out fighting and do it in the right way. We have to fight for one and another to get what we want out of this coming week."

Thursday night in Czechia against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League play-off would be the perfect time to put things right. At the same time, it will be perhaps the most difficult challenge the team have faced this season. 

Gordon, more than most in the squad, knows what it takes to get a result away from home in Europe. He between the sticks in Bordeaux, Basel and Braga.

"We need to go there, stay in the tie and bring it back to Tynecastle with something to play for," he said. "We will have full focus on that now. This defeat’s going to take a bit of getting over. We have to bounce back, stick together and fight for one another.

"It takes heart and desire to defend your goal and stay in the match when you’re a long way from home and don’t have many of your own fans there. You have to fight for one another. That’s the most important thing before any game plans or tactics, it’s about us being 100 per cent there for each other. Do that and we’ll give ourselves a chance."

One positive result can produce those intangibles that are so hard to measure and quantify in football but so often talked about: Confidence and momentum.

"Winning games breeds confidence and that’s what we need at the moment," Gordon said. "If we can get a good result over there and come back and pick up a win at Motherwell on Sunday, then things will start to look a lot better.

"But it’s hard to look at that right now when we’ve just gone out of the League Cup."