Steven Naismith rues 'naivety' but content with Hearts display and has say on Celtic offside VAR check

What the Hearts manager said after the 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park

Steven Naismith praised his Hearts players for their bravery against Celtic but felt that naivety had again been their downfall.

The Tynecastle side competed strongly, in the first half especially, but shipped two goals to Kyogo Furuhashi and a third late on to a Matt O’Riley penalty.

Naismith was content with how his team played overall at a difficult venue but was left frustrated by occasional spells of sloppy play that ultimately proved costly.

Hearts head coach Steven Naismith on the touchline during the 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The Hearts manager said: “We started off really well and it was two teams who were comfortable enough on the ball. The difference probably was that we didn’t take our chances and they did. In games, goals change the dynamic.

“I think if we want to be better, progress and be a team that really wants success you have to be able to come to these grounds and not sit in for 90 minutes and hope to get a goal. You need to have some form of attack and I thought we had that, especially in the first half.

“But, the flip side of it is, when you give good players half-chances they’ll take them. We gave them good chances and they were obviously going to take them. I’ve used it before but there was some naivety about some of our decisions where you have to recognise what time in the game it is and where you are on the pitch.

“When you lose that ball, our structure wasn’t great and it allowed Celtic to have momentum and it ended up being a corner or a shot on goal. We have to be as expansive as we can but knowing that we can’t give the ball away. We did and we got punished.”

There was a VAR check for offside at Celtic’s first goal but Naismith had no issue with the outcome.

He added: “I’ve seen it back on the iPad and I don’t think it was [offside]. But I’m taking some big positives from our players because we were brave on the ball and played through them at times. The only thing that was missing was a goal or two.”