“Not good enough,” was repeated over and over by James Penrice after Heart of Midlothian’s 2-1 defeat at home to Kilmarnock.

The defending for Danny Armstrong’s leveller: not good enough. The way Hearts dealt with the long throw for Kyle Vassell’s winner: not good enough.

The response to going behind with around half an hour to play: not good enough, and perhaps the most disappointing aspect of all.

Neil Critchley took two wins and a draw from his opening three matches but Wednesday night’s defeat to a side also struggling to find form in the Scottish Premiership this season was a stark reminder of why there was a vacancy at Tynecastle Park in the first place.

The result saw Hearts slip to the bottom of the league again Penrice warned that Derek McInnes’s game plan will be copied by others if the Gorgie outfit do not buck up their ideas.

“We need to be so much, much stronger,” said Penrice.

"I think other teams will see what happened tonight and they'll try and replicate what Killie did.

“I think Killie came here with a plan to just sit in and we'll try and nick something. Ultimately, our response was good enough and that's the bottom line.

"For the position we went in at half-time, I thought we were really comfortable. And then to come out and lose two goals like that, it's not good enough. We know it.

"It's more frustration, being in that position and allowing a team to come back into the game. It's not good enough.

"I think as soon as they get the second goal, they sat in. And I think we should be used to that.

“We should be used to teams coming here and trying to sit in and trying to nick points. We've only got ourselves to blame, really."

Those goals cancelled out Alan Forrest’s first-half opener. Even if the Hearts goal came when Kilmarnock were starting to cause a few issues, Hearts deservedly led at the break.

Poor defending was on show for both Killie goals and if that was not disappointing enough, Hearts barely created a meaningful chance in the final portion of the game.

"For the position we were in at half-time, we shouldn't be losing the game,” added Penrice.

"It's plain and simple. The two goals are really, really bad from our point of view. It just comes down to: we don't concede the goals and we don't lose the game."

"There's obviously frustration. You've seen that. It would be easy to just then go gung-ho, but there was a long time left in the game.

"I think they scored quite quickly and the two goals were close together. I think it was time to then calm down and just get back to what we were doing in the first half.

"Because I thought we were brilliant. I thought we knocked the ball about well. We maybe didn't have so many chances, but they were pinned in.

"We started the second half quite well. Then as soon as that first goal goes in, I think it rocks us.

"It's just not good enough. I think we need to be a lot better."

On a personal note, Penrice was one of the few who deserved pass marks on Wednesday.

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This extends to the season as a whole. Even during the worst-ever start to the season for the club, the fans have taken to the tireless left-back.

It is even more impressive because he missed most of pre-season.

Off the park, everything is going well to as he settles into his new surroundings. There is just one glaring issue: a lack of wins.

"Although it's not been absolutely brilliant, we haven't won a lot of games, but I'm absolutely buzzing to be here,” Penrice said.

"It was a long time coming. It was January it was getting spoken about.

"We managed to get the pre-contract done, but I was absolutely buzzing to sign here. I still am, every day coming in. It's a massive honour to play for this club and I think it would be a lot better if we were a lot higher up the league and doing a lot better.

"The lack of pre-season was tough. Mentally as well. Even just coming back, getting drip-fed back into training: training one session and not training the next. I never played any of the games in pre-season. I played Fleetwood, I think, and that wasn't great.

"But my family are buzzing. They've settled in here, they love it, they love all the other families and stuff like that. I'm buzzing to play for this club and I just really wish that we were doing a lot better.

“Everyone sees the league table, but we are so early in the season that it doesn't really matter. I think what matters is putting points on the board and going and climbing that table. For us, it's not been good enough, plain and simple.

"Wednesday didn't look like the last week or so. I think that's why we've walked away with nothing."