Cammy Devlin: Hearts need to start getting the points their performances deserve

Cammy Devlin believes Hearts have got to start taking points from good performances after their “frustrating” 1-0 defeat by Rangers kept them second bottom of the William Hill Premiership.

Cyriel Dessers scored for the home side after just six minutes at Ibrox on Sunday but the Jambos asserted themselves and striker Kenneth Vargas missed a good chance in each half to grab a leveller which would have been well deserved.

Neil Critchley replaced Steven Naismith as Gorgie boss last month and started with a 4-0 league win over St Mirren and a 2-0 Conference League triumph over Omonia Nicosia.

But since then there has been one win – a 2-1 victory at St Johnstone – in five matches and now they have to regroup during the international break.

Australia midfielder Devlin said: “First of all, when you go there and concede within five minutes, you know you’re going to find it really tough.

“I feel like it’s the story of the season in a lot of ways, where you come off thinking we played really well, but just don’t get a result.

“It’s just frustrating when you play the way we do, and don’t get a goal.

“I hope watching it is encouraging, because the message (Critchley’s) given us is to play and be brave, because he obviously thinks that there’s quality within the squad to do that.

“And I feel that since he’s come in, even in some of the games we’ve won, the games we’ve drawn, the games we’ve lost, that the actual performances have been positive.

“St Johnstone comes to mind. We didn’t play that well but we just grind out that result and that habit of playing well but not winning, we’ve got to change that. But that’s on the players.

“That’s us, but for people, myself included, individuals, to step up and go, ‘no, no, we’re playing nice but we need to get a result’.

“We walk away from Ibrox without a point. At minimum it needs to be a point. I feel anyway, because of how we played.

“We’re sitting not where we should be on the table. So I think every time we step out on the training pitches, there’s got to be a purpose to improve and to get better as an individual, as a team.

“And I think the gaffer will be looking forward to having us (during the international break), because we’ve had games every three days since he came in.

“We’ve changed the way we’re playing but it’s time to drill it more into us and for us as players to get better at it and to have a real focus on what we’re trying to do.

“I think that definitely will be the plan over the next couple of weeks.”