Craig Gordon is visibly hurting.

The veteran Heart of Midlothian goalkeeper has experienced some real lows over his two spells at Tynecastle Park. From cup final defeats to the events that led to the infamous ‘Riccarton 3’ incident.

No wins from nine, including eight consecutive defeats must rank up there alongside them.

That run has culminated in manager Steven Naismith and his coaching staff being relieved of their duties, as the hunt for the next Hearts manager begins.

The latest defeat came at the hands of St Mirren who have seen off the last two Hearts managers, Robbie Neilson and Daniel Stendel.

It was a familiar story in Hearts' season in Paisley on Saturday: conceding sloppy goals and a lack of goals.

Despite the current sequence of results, and managerial upheaval, Gordon still thinks that the club can achieve the goals set out at the start of the season.

Hearts are already 14 points behind unbeaten Aberdeen, the current favourites for third place, and the Pittodrie side have a game in hand.

“Yes, our targets are still achievable,” said the club captain.

“It's going to take everybody in that squad to come together. Everybody's going to have to do their share of the workload now.

“We've got a lot of games coming up with the European games added in there. We're going to need absolutely everybody.

“People are going to have to come to the table, start producing and help us get up this league and also help us to compete in Europe as well.”

Hearts host Ross County on Saturday before their trip to Azerbaijan in the Uefa Conference League. Three days later they are in Aberdeen.

It will be a baptism of fire for any new manager whenever they are appointed, with a gruelling Thursday-Sunday schedule.

Speaking ahead of the sacking of Naismith, Gordon called for togetherness – in response to the fans displaying their anger at the end of the game.

Not that he begrudged the supporters after they once again travelled in numbers and provided fantastic backing.

“I just took it in, stood and watched,” he said. “You can see the frustrations.

“They don't want us to go over there and clap them. They want us to win football matches. I was just watching it and seeing the frustration that they have and we share as well.

“Now it's just up to us to work even harder to double down and make sure that we're winning the next one because this can't keep going on. We need to change it and as a group of players it needs to happen now.

“Hearts is a club that is always better when everybody is sticking together. I know they're not happy right now but that is when we need everybody together and to pull in the same direction.

“If we can get that then that gives us that extra edge that when things are not going well we're probably one of the better teams at pulling ourselves apart.

“It's down to us to stick together. The players definitely will.”

Ross County at home, on paper, seems the perfect Scottish Premiership fixture to get the monkey off their back.

And the atmosphere will likely be a lot more encouraging from the stands after Naismith was sacked.

He, Frankie McAvoy and Gordon Forrest in the Tynecastle Park dugout this Saturday and the reaction from the stands would have been toxic.

“We've only had a couple of games at Tynecastle this season,” added Gordon. “We've been on the road a lot. We need to go back there.

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“It's never easy when you're on a run like what we're on.

“We feel as if we're giving everything, it's just not clicking. As you say, the confidence maybe isn't where it could be if we're winning games.

“We're desperate to try and put that right.

“We come here, we have a chance within 20 seconds and if that goes in then maybe we go on and win the game.

“We're just searching for that little bit of luck, something to go for us, get our noses in front. I'm still sure that once we do that we'll get better.”