Liam Fox on Hearts interim future and Jorge Grant red card

Hearts took a 2-1 lead having been 1-0 down after two minutes. They contrived to lose the match, however, with Nicky Devlin levelling immediately before Grant picked up a second yellow and the home side won it late on.

It was arguably Hearts' best performance of the season, leaving Fox frustrated with his interim time in charge unclear with the prospect of a new manager being appointed during the international break.

Read/listen to everything Fox said:

How do you feel after that?

I feel disappointed, I feel frustrated. I thought for large spells of the game the players were really, really good. Even more so off the back of what's been a really, really difficult, challenging week. Not only with Steven [Naismith] and his staff leaving, but the travel that we've had. I'm actually really disappointed for the players to be honest because I thought we were good for at least a point. The number of chances we created, the way we moved the ball, how we were without the ball with our energy. Overriding feeling is just a huge disappointment for the players.

Some big moments when they went against you, Vargas with a big chance and then the red card as well?

Yes, we created loads of chances, some really good chances. That happens in football. On another day you'd hopefully take them and the outcome is different. The red card definitely changes the flow of the game. The other thing that's worth mentioning is that the second goal, the ball's actually still moving from a free kick. They go up the park score. Jorge Grant is then booked for dissent because he's complaining about the ball moving and then he gets sent off on a challenge. So, yes, there's frustration there, there's disappointment. It's a sore one to take.

Have you spoken to the officials?

I've spoken to John [Beaton] very quickly.

Have they given you a reason for any explanation?

He just said that decision was on him.

Have you spoken to Jorge Grant? Is there frustration from him as well?

First and foremost, Jorge Grant's put his hands up and he feels he's let the team down. There's no doubt that sending off changes the flow of the game, it changes the momentum. That's football. We work in a world of really, really small margins and I just thought those couple of things went against us today.

You had a lot of big chances, some early chances in the first half after you went behind as well, which could have changed the flow of the game too?

I need to give credit to the players because it would have been very, very easy to go under. The atmosphere was really good today, Aberdeen had been flying high, but I thought we bounced back really quickly. I thought we got control of the game, I thought we passed it well, we moved it well, we pressed really, really well, we created chances. So, there's a lot of positive things to take but we've come away with nothing. So, that's the disappointment.

How frustrating is it to come away with nothing on the back of possibly your strongest performance of the season?

Yeah, definitely. That's a difficult question to answer because it's in my short period here, that's the best we've been in the three games. We got a brilliant result the other night, we dug a point out the week before. I thought we deserved better today but like I say, we live in a world of football where you don't always get what you deserve.

What was the situation with Kingsley?

Rolled his ankle, really early rolled his ankle. So disappointment for him but I thought James Penrice when he came on did great as well. Everybody who went on the park today contributed.

How do you see the next couple of weeks panning out? Do you expect that to be your last game in charge?

I've no idea until somebody from the club tells me differently but until such times that is, I'll be back to work tomorrow. We've also got the international break now which will probably allow the club a wee bit of time to go through the process which I'm sure they're already going through. It's been a privilege and an honour for me to do this role and even in the short term, I'm just disappointed that we didn't take something from today.

How do you approach it with the players? Do you give them time off during the international break?

We've got Ross Matthews' friendly on Wednesday night so we'll be back in, we'll be off tomorrow for a couple of days and then we'll see where we are come the rest of the week.

How difficult is it going to be stewing over this?

You stew over every defeat and every disappointment. That's the nature of football, that's the nature of being involved in coaching and management. I think in time we'll see that there were some positives today but I'm repeating myself. All I'm feeling is frustration and disappointment not for me but for the players because I thought they deserved more today.