Hearts deserve to go down claims St Mirren chief Tony Fitzpatrick

‘They are bottom of the table for a reason’

St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick has little sympathy for Hearts.

St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick claims Hearts deserve to go down and has cast doubt on their ability to turn things around even if they had been allowed to play the final eight matches of the season.

The Tynecastle side were officially relegated on Monday when the SPFL board ended the Premiership season early due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hearts were bottom of the table after 30 games, four points behind 11th-placed Hamilton Accies, and six points behind Ross County and St Mirren.

Daniel Stendel’s team lost 1-0 to the Paisley Saints in the final match before football was shut down due to coronavirus.

If the result had been the other way around St Mirren would have been bottom of the league when the season was called.

Despite the tightness of the table, Fitzpatrick has little sympathy for Hearts

"I have to stress this is my opinion and not the opinion of the club, but Hearts do deserve to go down,” he told the Paisley Daily Express.

Fitzpatrick, a former St Mirren captain and manager, added: “They've played 30 games and only managed four or five wins, so as far as I'm concerned they are bottom of the table for a reason.

“They had money available and made some big signings in the January transfer window but results still weren't going their way and, to be honest, I couldn't see that changing for them.”

Hearts, in fact, managed only four league wins, one of them being a 5-2 victory over St Mirren at Tynecastle when Austin MacPhee was caretaker manager.

The Paisley side won seven league games.