'Fundamentally wrong' - Hearts fan chief calls for 'huge change' and demands FoH leadership'

Hearts supporters' chief has called for "huge change" at the club. Picture: SNS

The Tynecastle team stumbled to a second difficult loss in the space of a few days when they lost at home to Queen of the South in the Championship.

Hearts hold a 13-point lead at the top of the table but there is unrest amongst the fan base, heightened by Tuesday’s Scottish Cup loss to Highland League side Brora Rangers.

Fans protested outside of Tynecastle Park ahead of Saturday’s match, demanding change at board room and managerial level.

The Championship, if results go a certain way, could be wrapped up this weekend when the team travel to East End Park to face Dunfermline Athletic. However, Kilgour, the Federation of Hearts supporters club general secretary, believes changes are required.

“After Tuesday night, looking for a big reaction and we saw nothing," he told BBC Scotland. “I think the performance tells us all we need to know. It’s time for change, huge change.

“It has definitely been brewing. Performances have been poor for a while now. I could count on one hand the number of good performances there’s been this season.

"It's been a real concern amongst all fans the standard of our play.

“Personally I feel sorry for Robbie. Great guy, I know he loves the Hearts and I know he will be hurting. He has to go for the good of the club.

“That team will come right back down, guaranteed, if this continues. There's nothing in that team, nothing in that group of players that I can see that will keep us in the Premier League.”

‘Good money at bad’

Kilgour, who hoped to chat with Foundation of Hearts chairman Stuart Wallace, has called on the organisation to show more leadership.

The Foundation released a statement last week, while Wallace confirmed to the Evening News that fans had been in touch to cancel their pledges.

"I believe the Foundation should be leading here, leading for change, leading to get the club on a better footing,” Kilgour said.

"If they take over in the summer they have to act stronger. Their statement through the week was very weak and I know fans are not happy with that at all and it’s resulted in a lot of people telling me they are stopping their pledges.

"That’s not the thing to do, we want to keep the money going into the club to make the club better but I can understand why people are withholding pledges.

“I’ve wrestled with it myself all week. You feel you are throwing good money at bad. The signing policies have been shocking for a while now, the quality of players we are getting in for the money we are paying is terrible. There is something fundamentally wrong at Tynecastle and there has been for a while.

“This is the time for the Foundation to step up. They are going to be the owners of the club very, very soon. It's now a time to grow a pair so to speak and start leading.

"I think that’s what a lot of fans want as well.”