Hearts manager Paulo Sergio was bitterly disappointed with his side today as the Jam Tarts crashed to a 2-1 defeat at home to St Johnstone.

A second minute goal from Liam Craig and a penalty from Dave Mackay sealed the three points for the Perthshire side - the second penalty awarded after Jamie Hamill missed his - while Medhi Taouil's thunderbolt ultimately proved to be a consolation, despite late pressure..

Calamitous defending was ultimately the downfall of the Jambos, with an error from the dependable Marian Kello allowing the Saints to take the lead early on, and Paulo was in no mood for making excuses, saying: "Our defensive line lacked calmness and confidence, and they were very weak. We had a lot of chances to score and we lost this game in a very stupid way."

"What upsets me more was the lack of aggression and quality in our defensive line. We didn't attack the ball and that made me very angry. When Jamie missed his penalty, we had lots of time left."

Paulo added: "We are losing focus on the training pitch and that is affecting us on the field. The team are dealing with other problems that everybody knows about and we are losing our concentration, most of all in defence. We are creating enough chances but we are not scoring enough and we are doing stupid things in defence and giving our opponents more chances than they deserve."

Hearts face a tough task to pick themselves up from another defeat with a trip to the east end of Glasgow to face Celtic next week, a job that Paulo is under no illusions about: "We have to talk about changes and figure out what we're going to do because it will be difficult enough without our mistakes."

Paulo also confirmed that Andy Webster was taken off with a calf strain at half time, the defender being replaced by Stephen Elliott. 

Today on HeartsTV - exclusive post-match reaction from Paulo Sergio.