Barrie McKay insists Hearts can hurt any team in the Premiership on their day – but Motherwell didn’t let them play on Saturday.
Graham Alexander’s side ran out comfortable 2-0 winners through goals from Connor Shields and Ricki Lamie, the second of which was immediately after Taylor Moore’s dismissal for two bookings.
Ex-Rangers and Nottingham Forest winger McKay says teams in the division know if they let Hearts play, they can take them apart.
He said: “They obviously had a gameplan and played it well. We couldn’t get into the game, maybe we were a bit naive in the way we tried to play. We need to do the ugly side of the game as well.
“They tried to impose themselves on you. Every team is going to try to do the same against us. If they let us play our game, we can hurt any team in this league. Unfortunately we didn’t do that on Saturday.
“We still created some chances which, on another day, we put away. That’s without playing well. We can definitely learn from Saturday.
“You see with the way Motherwell celebrated – they know they were up against a really good team.”
McKay put Ben Woodburn and Josh Ginnelly through in the first half for chances they were unable to take but he says nobody can be faulted for lack of effort.
He said: “I think all the boys gave their all. I’m in the team to create chances. It was just one of those days.
“You saw last time [against Dundee United]Ben sticks two away. On another day him and Gino both finish. Even the one Boycie went through, you would probably put your house on him finishing it.
“It’s one of those days we can analyse, look back on and learn from. The boys are hurting. You don’t want to lose any game.”
