'It was like we had different players. We lost our ideas.' Daniel Stendel frustrated after St Johnstone 3-3 Hearts

Tynecastle manager grateful for a point despite his team leading 2-1 at the interval

Daniel Stendel was frustrated after Hearts' 3-3 draw at St Johnstone

Hearts manager Daniel Stendel admitted he did not recognise his players during the second half of the 3-3 draw with St Johnstone.

The German left McDiarmid Park exasperated despite the result lifting his club climbing off the bottom of the Premiership - for 24 hours at least. He was frustrated after seeing Hearts' 2-1 interval lead overturned before Sean Clare's brilliant 90th-minute equaliser.

The visitors were ahead at half-time having overhauled Stevie May's opener with goals from Liam Boyce and Steven Naismith. St Johnstone rallied after the break, aided by Hearts suddenly becoming disjointed and exposed.

Ali McCann equalised, with May's penalty putting the hosts in front after Tynecastle defender Craig Halkett was penalised for impeding Jason Kerr. Sean Clare's thunderous strike restored parity again in the final minute of normal time.

“I will need some time to understand what happened in the second half," said Stendel. " I thought in the first half we were in control, even when St Johnstone scored I felt we controlled the game.

"At half-time I told the players if they play the same again they would win, but we knew St Johnstone would come out and try to make an impact. In the second half we played a different game and it was like we had different players on the pitch. We lost our ideas.

"At half-time I didn’t think I would be saying I’d be happy with a point but, when you see the second half, I am. It was a nice goal from Sean to get us a point. A little positive was the end of the game, the way the players didn’t give up and the mentality of the squad is good.

"When you see what has happened in the last few months, sometimes there will be downs like we had in the second half. But in Germany we say that when you go down you can come back and go higher, so that is what we want to do."

Stendel praised the remarkable 3,231 travelling Hearts support. "The support we got from the fans was good. They pushed the players and that will be a strength if they can help the players in difficult situations. I hope we can give something back to the supporters for the backing when we are at Tynecastle," he said ahead of Wednesday's visit from Kilmarnock.

Tommy Wright, the St Johnstone manager, was upset certain decisions did not go his team's way but felt they should still have taken three points.

"We should win the game because we totally battered Hearts in the second half. It was a brilliant second-half performance. The first half wasn't that bad apart from two situations we didn't deal with," he said.