Steven Naismith lamented the goals conceded at Fir Park that saw Hearts slip to a 3-1 defeat against Motherwell.
Goals from Paul McGinn, Stephen O’Donnell, and Tom Sparrow put the Steelmen on their way, with Yutaro Oda’s second half strike not enough to lift the Jambos back into the game.
“Every one of the goals today was preventable,” he told Hearts TV.
“We were poor in both boxes and gave up easy chances. That’s where the frustration comes from because we created some decent chances ourselves.
“You could see the lift in energy when Yutaro takes his goal, but that’s been a recurring theme this season. We’ve seen periods of good play in our first five games but there needs to be an improvement and quickly.
“We’re giving the opposition goals and chances that are too easy, so we need to work on rectifying that.”
The Jambos now look ahead to Thursday night’s meeting with Viktoria Plzen in the second leg of our Europa League play-off.
With the tie sitting at a 1-0 advantage to Plzen, the boss knows there’s all to play for still when the sides meet again at Tynecastle.
“It’s one we need to look forward to,”
“We should be looking to compete in the highest tier of competition that we can, and the tie is alive and still winnable.
“You could see our quality when we played them in Czechia and with the tie neatly poised still, it’s one we’re looking forward to and wanting to win.”
