Derek McInnes vows Hearts still fighting hard after draw with Kilmarnock

Derek McInnes is adamant Hearts still have plenty fight about them but the manager admitted they need to rediscover their attacking spark after seeing their nine-point advantage at the top of the William Hill Premiership wiped out over the past month.

The Jambos have failed to win any of their last four matches, scoring just two goals in the process, since they defeated Dundee 4-0 at Tynecastle on November 1.

Their latest setback was a 1-1 draw at home to off-form Kilmarnock on Wednesday, when substitute Bruce Anderson capitalised on a mistake from keeper Alexander Schwolow to cancel out Lawrence Shankland’s opener.

Hearts’ recent drop-off has allowed resurgent Celtic to move level with them on points ahead of Sunday’s top-of-the-table showdown at Parkhead.

“The fire’s there,” stressed manager McInnes. “We could just do with getting a wee bit more quality back into certain areas. We’re not giving up loads of chances.

“It was a 0-0 (against Motherwell) on Saturday and we should have got our clean sheet against Kilmarnock. It was 1-0 at Aberdeen.

“We’ve lost a wee bit of our potency, I would suggest. But I don’t think we’ve lost any of our fire. There’s one or two mistakes that have come into it.

“The goal against Aberdeen’s a wee bit of an anomaly in terms of they get a ricochet and a break of the ball, and Kilmarnock was a mistake, it happens.

“So the fire’s there, the spirit’s there still. We’ve got a good set of lads. But there’s no doubt it’s like one extreme to the other.

“We’re not losing games but we certainly need to be doing a bit more to win games.”

McInnes wishes his side had been able to grind out the same type of 1-0 win against Killie that Celtic enjoyed at home to Dundee.

“We hemmed Kilmarnock in for long periods,” he said. “But there’s Celtic 1-0 (against Dundee). 1-0’s enough. They’ve got a goal, 1-0. Everybody was probably expecting them to win 4-0, 5-0 against a team that were struggling a wee bit.

“But 1-0’s enough. I said that to the players. Sometimes 1-0s are the better ones, they’re the best ones to win. Get your clean sheet, get up the road with the three points, knowing there’s a bit more in you. But when you don’t get it, it’s a sore one.”