Fans will back Hearts all the way in relegation battle insists Clevid Dikamona

There is an inescapable truth that however inebriated you recognise being, it doesn’t help sober you up.

Clevid Dikamona, battling with St Mirren’s Alex Jakubiak, finds it difficult to explain why Hearts have plumbed the depths in the Premiership. Picture: SNS.

Following the dispiriting 1-0 defeat in the pivotal relegation six-pointer against fellow strugglers St Mirren, there was an universal appreciation among the Hearts coaching staff and players that they had played as if punch-drunk.

Yet performing the football equivalent of slapping themselves about the face appears beyond them. The fact that didn’t happen on Wednesday night to leave them slumped at the bottom of the table, four points adrift of Hamilton Accies, is alarming when the encounter provided them with an opportunity to send their hosts to the floor.

Daniel Stendel, inset, sounded defeated in more ways than one as he sought to compute the anemic nature of his Tynecastle team at Paisley he had watched coursing with his life in the victories over Rangers and Hibernian in recent weeks. The only blood that boiled was from the Hearts support in the away end of the Simple Digital Arena.

Their snarling over the display both at half-time and full-time, Stendel’s early substutions, and the contribution of Loic Damour was all vicious in the extreme. Yet, Clevid Dikamona – who didn’t cover himself in glory as Jon Obika shrugged him off to score the winner – refuses to accept that Hearts aren’t only lost but have lost their followers.

“I am not worried about the supporters as it’s normal that they were angry the other night. We lost an important game so their reaction was normal,” said the 29-year-old Frenchman. “But I know they will be behind us unitl the end. Every game they are fantastic as we saw against Rangers and Hibs. I know they will fight for the club and stay behind us.”

The Hearts fans require to see that very fight from their players, though. The supine nature of Stendel’s team in a game that was so pivotal to their prospects of remaining in the top tier – only eight league games still remaining, coronavirus permitting – will not be easily forgiven.

Dikamona admits it isn’t easily explained either, that Hearts could plumb such depths having so recently hit the heights in the derby and the Scottish Cup.

“We had been on a good run beforehand [with two wins and two draws in the previous four games] but the hardest thing in football is to be consistent. When you have shown that you are capable of playing to a certain level then that is the minimum you must show in every game. It’s hard to stay at that level but that’s why we work hard in training every day. We have to be ready for every game but the other night St Mirren showed more than us. That’s not normal because we are fighting for something.

“Hearts is a big club and we can’t go down like this. On Wednesday our usual game was missing. But there are still eight games and 24 points to fight for. We need to show that we will be ready for the next game as we were not ready for the St Mirren game. The result tells you that. But that’s not normal from us. We were maybe not ready for this kind of game. St Mirren let us have the ball but the games before that we didn’t play with the ball. We were fighting and won all the battles. On Wedneday night we did not do that. Every second ball and every battle we lost. That’s why we lost the game.”