Daniel Stendel admits time is running out on Hearts

Hearts manager Daniel Stendel knows time is running out for his team to avoid relegation.

The Hearts manager Daniel Stendel acknowledged today that "it is not easy to believe" the club can avoid relegation this season, but pledged to continue fighting.

Stendel stressed he will not give up despite his team falling four points behind at the foot of the Premiership after Wednesday's 1-0 loss at St Mirren.

The German struggled to explain the defeat and manner of performance but promised supporters that there will be no more lack of fight during the remaining eight league games.

He also advised his players to learn from the appetite St Mirren showed in earning a result which propelled them out of the relegation zone.

He told the Evening News: "I work hard for our big goal but it is more difficult after Wednesday's game. It is not easy to believe that we can do it in the end but I never give up.

"When you have so many fans like we have at every game, you need to present something different than Wednesday. We need to do it in the next eight games.

"I don't know how many wins we need but we need them. We cannot promise wins but we can promise fight. It is not only the supporters who are disappointed.

"We are very disappointed and we need to fight for every duel and every ball. This is what teams like St Mirren do. They don't play better football but they understand it's a fight from the first moment until the last moment. This is what we need to do.

"Our performance was really bad on Wednesday but, also, we cannot be happy about some of the referee's decisions."

Stendel is unhappy about the lack of desire from certain players in Paisley and insisted nerves should not be offered as an excuse. "Everybody can understand when the players are nervous," he added.

"You can say some decisions are not right but you can fight, this is nothing to do with being nervous or not. I think a lot of players tried but, if you want to win a game like Wednesday, you need all 11 players on the pitch to fight. That was not the case.

"We tried to change some things in the second half with Liam Boyce, Andy Irving and Ryo Meshino coming on. These are players with more ideas in the last third and they want every ball.

"However, from the first moment until the last moment, I did not have the feeling that we were ready."

Hearts travel to Livingston on Sunday for their next league fixture. The West Lothian club have an excellent home record, with only two league defeats there all season.

Stendel does not expect to have any players back from injury in time for the match. The on-loan Barnsley midfielder Toby Sibbick is due to resume full training with the first-team squad at Riccarton, however Sunday will almost certainly come too soon for him.