'Quality of defending costing us big time' - Naismith

"Frustrated" Steven Naismith warned his players their current form "can’t go on" after their defeat to Motherwell left them without a win in five competitive games this season.

The Gorgie side slumped to a fourth consecutive loss as two headers from set-pieces helped Stuart Kettlewell's side to a 3-1 win.

Head coach Naismith cited the first two goals as "poor" and acknowledged Hearts' handling of such situations "needs fixed".

"It’s poor," he said. "There’s nothing else to be said. Even the third goal is poor. Every goal we've conceded this season has been really, really poor.

"Our decision-making, quality of defending and timing of when we drop has been really poor and it's costing us big time at the moment.

"We need to fix it. It can't go on the way it is. On the other side we need to be better at making chances. The quality of our final ball is lacking massively.”

Yutaro Oda's goal at Fir Park was just Hearts' second of the season, and the lack of potency up top is evidently frustrating the supporters who once again booed their side off.

"It's frustrating," added Naismith. "At the moment, in both boxes we're second best.

"In the final third, our final pass and decision-making was poor and when we got shots we didn't make the most of them.

"In both boxes, we're not at the level we need to be at."