Hearts explain Stephen Kingsley's injury and answer defensive questions - Matthew Gillies decision for Sunday

Wouter Vrancken gave an honest assessment of Hearts’ performance against Thun and admitted the 3-1 defeat was not acceptable. The Edinburgh club’s UEFA Conference League ambitions were damaged by losing in Switzerland, leaving them requiring at least two wins from their final three league phase matches.

Hearts were missing 10 first-team players but defended naively in Switzerland and found themselves 2-0 down at half-time thanks to Jamie McCart’s own goal and Brighton Labeau’s instinctive strike. Furkan Dursun added a third in the second period before Stuart Findlay’s late consolation header. Vrancken, the Tynecastle head coach, was frank in his post-match media conference.

“Not good enough, simple,” he remarked. “We had to play, we had to find our game, but when you saw it directly from the start, I don't know why, but we didn't have the confidence or so to find the spaces and use the spaces. We knew that they wanted to press us and keep us on one side, and the moments we got to change it, we didn't take. In duels and stuff like this, you have to man up to win it. That was also not good enough today.

“You get two easy goals and then it's really hard to find the extra energy again to win it. After the moment that we could have had a penalty [Dursan’s challenge on Findlay], then they scored the third one. I heard just now that a guy could maybe be sent off. It was not our night in decisions, but also we have to look at ourselves, the quality we brought. We expected more in the circumstances we are in, and change of positions, all those things, but we did it so many times that you always expect that it will return good and that everybody gets his level and finds his game, but today it was not good enough.

“I don't want to blame them the players because I think we were too easy in getting the goals, and you expect always this intensity. It was also our game to put a lot of intensity in it, but I want to also defend them, because it's not always easy in the situation we're in, and playing every game like this. There's a run of games, so the thing that we have to do now is stick together, work hard, recover well from this game, and go one time full [against Falkirk on Sunday] before the break again.”

Vrancken acknowledged that his team were too open at times, especially when they had an attacking set-piece. “Today, yeah,” he said. “It's incredible actually, because then the organisation has to be a bit better. I don't think it was the same in other games. I don't recall. I don't know if you know of some other games, but today it was like this.

“Circumstances always have an impact, of course, and the style of play on this pitch. It's astro, so you think it's maybe technical or something like this. I played all year on astro last year. It's not about technical players, it's defending forward, being strong in these duels and not taking too many touches, but more give and goes, play and make a run. Then you have to cope with it in defence and you have to do it yourself in offence.”

Hearts suffered another injury when Stephen Kingsley was forced off with a hamstring problem. Vrancken admitted it was a risk playing him on Thun’s astroturf given his history of muscle injuries. “It's always a risk. When you have this run of games, you take a risk with every player, but you have to put 11 players on the pitch,” said the manager. “We talked it through, of course, in the previous days, and he felt good, especially because he played a lot of games and came out really good. He was really confident that he could play. It's a pity, so we'll see.”

Asked how long Kingsley will be missing, Vrancken was unsure. “I can't say it now because it just happened. He's mentally down because he didn't expect it and he didn't want this to happen.” Teenager Matthew Gillies replaced Kingsley to make his Hearts debut at the Visana Stadion. “It was a difficult moment, of course, but I think he did well for his first minutes,” said Vrancken of the youngster, who is currently on a co-operation loan at Stenhousemuir. “He tried to stay in position really good and play from there, so I was happy for him also that he could show himself a bit on this level. I'm happy with his performance.”

Hearts may keep Gillies with them for Sunday’s Premiership game against Falkirk with so many first-team regulars sidelined. “There's a possibility, yeah,” said Vrancken. The manager added that he does not expect any injured players to return this weekend.