Derek McInnes dismisses title race panic merchants as Hearts boss insists no discipline issue at Tynecastle

Derek McInnes says he doesn’t care over those worrying about Hearts’ title credentials - as a build-up of red cards are addressed.

The Jambos do not play this weekend after elimination from the Scottish Cup but do have next week’s huge Edinburgh derby with Hibs to prepare for. Hearts head into that game off a narrow 1-0 defeat against St Mirren, in which they played a large part of proceedings with 10 men following Craig Halkett’s first half red card, just their third defeat of this league season.

Rangers have now cut the gap on the league leaders to three points and some have questioned whether or not Hearts have the mettle to maintain their impressive season to date. Hearts boss McInnes isn’t paying too much attention as his focus sits in-house. He said: “I don't really care too much about what people are saying. My job is to be subjective and look at things properly.

Derek McInnes on Hearts title challenge

“We've had three defeats in the league, all by a single goal. One of them was with 10 men at St Mirren, at Aberdeen we were the better team and should have won, and the game at Easter Road we were guilty of losing goals. But, in all these games, we're still showing we're competitive. We're not rolling over for anybody.

“We're a competitive team. Nobody said we were perfect. But we're top of the league, still in February for a reason. Not just by being competitive, but because we put in good performances. I hear people talk about us and say, ‘oh, they've got a great team spirit, they've got great resilience, they've got a great set of players, they're great at this and that…’

“But you don't sit top of the league for four and a half months without having good players and being good at a lot of things. So I understand, the closer you get to the end of the season, the criticism can come. I think it's fair at times. I know what the players give us. And if people want to start losing their s*** or start panicking, start... criticising us, then that's fine. I couldn't care less, I'm not bothered. I know what we've got in the dressing room. We've got some good fixtures coming up before the split. And it's important that we maintain our levels, we maintain our strength, maintain our belief.

“And if people start doubting that from outside, then that's on them, that's not on us. It is important now that unity, sticking together, showing belief, showing confidence in what we are and nobody's starting to have any doubt about that, particularly from ourselves. But three-quarters of the country would have been delighted with that result the other night, there's no two ways about it and I said that to the player after. But at least from within, our team, staff, our supporters let's keep fighting for Hearts, we're all Hearts and we're here to keep trying to annoy people and keep trying to upset the odds and hopefully we can continue to do that.”

Hearts red cards addressed

Halkett’s red card is the third in five games for Hearts after Alexander Schwolow’s dismissal in victory at Dundee and Beni Baningime’s marching orders during a win over St Mirren last month. McInnes says lapses in focus are the reason for the reds, adding: “I think if you just see three red cards in five games, you automatically assume there's a discipline problem with it, isn’t there?.

“For me, Beni's was an unusual challenge for him, he's not a dirty player, I mean, we've all watched Hearts over the years. And the one thing you would say about Beni, he's not a dirty player, it's just a mistimed tackle, and he was rightly red-carded for it. The other two, for me, aren't a lack of discipline. For me, it's just a wee bit of lack of focus as a team, and concentration. The Schwolow one at Dundee was 30 seconds before half-time, and we don't deal with a long balll, we don't cover it right, and we end up getting ourselves in a situation.

“And the other night, we were guilty of the tackle arriving, instead of playing forward. We had three or four opportunities to play forward, and play on their back line, and put a bit of stress on their back line. And our refusal to play forward put a bit of stress on our line, because we gave St Mirren encouragement. I actually thought we started the game alright that night, the first 10 minutes, and then I think between 10 minutes and the red-card at 29 minutes, I thought we gave St Mirren too much encouragement.

“And then everybody can start picking and choosing, and saying why we were poor in that period. Anyway, we go down and show, with 10 men, all the fighting qualities I expect for the team. We were so admirable, and we were so resolute. We'd kept St Mirren to very little, they just kept playing the same way a lot of the time, just hitting diagonals and long balls. And even with the extra man, they were still trying to put pressure on our back line, the crosses. And I thought we stood up to it really well.

“So, we're two minutes away from getting what I thought would have been a positive result from such a difficult situation, but everything gets analysed when you lose a game. And we've got to admit it was a bad night for us, we didn't play well enough in that 20-minute period in the first half, and it gave St Mirren the encouragement to get that advantage, that numerical advantage. And we've got to own that. So there's no discipline problem. Maybe just a wee bit of focus, concentration, not a problem, but we ned to make sure there’s a bit more focus.”