Former Hearts midfielder Ian Black has branded the current team "a f*****g joke" as they slumped to a second defeat on the spin.
The pressure is on manager Robbie Neilson after a Scottish Cup exit to Brora Rangers was followed up with a loss to Queen of the South.
Hearts went 2-0 down early on but fought back to 2-2, only for Andy Irving's shocker of an own goal to condemn them to defeat.
Black played over 100 games for the club across three seasons, winning the Scottish Cup in 2012.
And the former midfielder offered a brutal assessment of the current state of things at Tynecastle.
Hearts posted their XI for the match on Instagram, with Black responding: "That team there is a f*****g joke."
The defeat has brought plenty of criticism for Neilson, though others have pointed the finger of blame squarely at the players.
Allan Preston insisted: "I expected better. I thought you would get a wounded animal today after all the criticism from Tuesday and that wasn’t the case.
“Hearts are in a real quagmire. I don’t know where they go from here.
"There’s a lot of soul searching that’s got to go on, from the board members, from Ann Budge, from Robbie and his staff and, most importantly, from the players.
“The last five days for this football club were simply not good enough. Some of them were absolutely gutless today. The two performances they’ve put in for this club have been nothing short of disgraceful.”
