Conor Washington has no issue with the negative reception Hearts got from their fans after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Ross County, and says he’s had a lot worse in the past.
The Jambos were lucky to get away with a point after Brian Graham hit the post with a late penalty.
The anger in the stands was clearly audible at full-time, with the team and manager Craig Levein coming in for deserved criticism following a a second half display that was well below par.
Washington completely understood the fans’ frustrations and said they have every right to expect better at Tynecastle against a newly-promoted side.
“They’ve got every right to be frustrated,” he said. “They and us think we should be winning that game.
“We should have had more than enough to have done that. No disrespect to Ross County but at our place we should be dominating and winning games of football.
“If I’m honest, I played in front of some tough crowds in England so I don’t think the fans were too bad on Saturday. They were right in giving us the reaction we got.”
Washington forced two good saves out of County ‘keeper Ross Laidlaw in the first half but admitted he was forced to feeds off scraps on the second.
The striker has called for better communication between the Hearts players, and that sticking together is now key after some honest truths were spoken in the dressing room.
“I don’t think we got the shape right as a group of players that the manager wanted and we were really poor second half,” he said.
“There were some words said in the changing room that needed to be said, especially around first and second balls.
“Second half they came to our ground, dominated and out fought us which is a real disappointment. It definitely felt like I was feeding off scraps in the second half but I probably should have done better with a couple in the first half.
“We need to get better as a group and help each other more as a group. We said that, we need to stick together on the pitch, have more communication and not let the crowd frustrations affect our game.
“We need to help each other out more. It’s such a basic thing to talk to each other on the pitch but we just didn’t do that enough in the second half.”
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