Last season, Heart of Midlothian recorded some impressive feats. Whether it was the points total, number of away wins, or finally recording a victory at Celtic Park.

They have continued to record feats this season. But not positive ones.

For example, one goal in their opening four games of the season was the worst start to a campaign in front of goal for 106 years. 

Now the team have played seven matches and head into an international break without a win in seven we can re-evaluate. And it is not pleasant reading.

With two goals in the first seven fixtures of the season, this is officially the worst goal return to start a campaign in the club's 150-year history.

In addition to that, according to Hearts Stats it is now "seven games in a row without a goal to equalise or take the lead in a game, the longest run since 1967" while Hearts are the only team out of the 42 in the top four tiers in the country not to score a first-half goal in a competitive match this season.

The goal struggles has led to one of the worst starts to a season in the club's history. But is it the worst? Not quite. The team still have a wee bit of breathing space to ensure they don't go down as the worst to start a campaign. But not much.

The current seven-game winless run is the worst start by a Hearts team in 46 years.

The 1978/79 vintage also went seven games without a win to start the campaign, defeating Motherwell 1-0 in the eighth fixture to put an end to the run. During that spell they lost a two-legged League Cup tie with Greenock Morton but did draw a couple of league matches.

Now, if you were to count the Anglo Scottish Cup, that winless run would increase to nine due to a two-legged defeat to Partick Thistle. However, we have only counted league, League Cup, Scottish Cup and Europe.

Hearts' horrible start

  • Rangers (h) - 0-0

  • Dundee (a) - 3-1

  • Falkirk (a) - 2-0

  • Viktoria Plzen (a) - 1-0

  • Motherwell (a) - 3-1

  • Viktoria Plzen (h) - 0-1

  • Dundee United (h) - 0-1

It also took the Hearts side of 1900/01 eight games to taste victory for the first time. That run included six defeats and just three goals. 

The worst start to a campaign for Hearts arrived in 1921. The team didn't win until October and their 10th game of the season.

While the team scored six goals in their first seven games they couldn't win, drawing four and losing five, including to Clyde twice and Hibs. They finally defeated Falkirk 4-1 to end the winless run.

Hearts face two tricky games away from home after the international break. They travel to Celtic Park before heading to St Mirren in a game that was moved from December. In their 10th match of the campaign they host Ross County before September is out.

It has been a very bad start to the season for Hearts. But it is not the worst. Yet.