Flogel says sorry to Hearts faithful

HEARTS star Thomas Flogel today admitted that the club’s supporters deserve an apology from the players after Saturday’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Inverness Caley Thistle.

The Gorgie outfit were booed off the Tynecastle pitch by their fans as referee Alan Freeland’s whistle brought their fourth-round nightmare to a merciful end, Steve Paterson’s minnows having fully merited their 3-1 triumph.

The Jambos were roundly criticised after their worst result of the season as the Highlanders grabbed the headlines again after another giantkilling act following their heroics against Celtic in the same competition two years ago.

And Flogel says the Gorgie faithful had every right to vent their anger after witnessing such an insipid performance for 90 minutes.

"We are hugely disappointed at the way we played on Saturday, particularly as we had gone into the match having played well in recent matches," he said.

"We were absolutely awful. Cup ties can have a habit of throwing up surprises but we didn’t really battle hard enough to deserve taking something from the game.

"All credit to Inverness, they were the better team on the day and deserved to go through.

"The whole dressing-room was down after a poor display and we all felt sorry for the fans. A lot of them paid good money to come along and support us and we let them down badly. We must say sorry to them for the performance as they deserved better on the day.

"The dressing room was down and we all felt sorry for the fans"

"They must have gone home after the match totally dejected by what they had seen and we apologise for that."

The defeat was Hearts’ third in a row although it was the manner of the loss which concerned boss Craig Levein more than anything.

While they could count themselves unfortunate not to have taken something from the league matches against Livingston and Celtic, there was no hard luck story surrounding Saturday’s reverse as Inverness ran the show.

It is now back to league business for Levein, who faces a hazardous trip to East End Park this weekend to face a Dunfermline side also smarting following a premature exit from the Scottish Cup, Ayr United having dumped Jimmy Calderwood’s side out of the competition courtesy of a 3-0 triumph at Somerset Park.

Flogel believes the visit to Fife gives Hearts the ideal opportunity to bounce back from their Caley calamity and give their fans something to shout about for all the right reasons.

"We have to try to forget what happened in the cup tie as quickly as possible," he said.

"We face a hard game against Dunfermline this weekend and they will be fired up for it as they didn’t do well on Saturday either.

"We have to ensure we prepare properly for the match and hopefully we can make it up to our supporters with a much-improved performance.

"The players knew that we had a chance of a decent run in the cup this season but we would have struggled to beat anybody playing as we did against Inverness.

"These upsets can happen in football - one moment you are up, the next you are down and that’s what makes the game so interesting. But we have to concern ourselves with the future now and this weekend is now the priority."

Although Levein refused to make excuses for his side’s inept display, the absence of skipper Steven Pressley combined with the continued involvement of Kevin McKenna with Canada at the Gold Cup in the United States, was clearly a contributing factor as the hosts’ rearguard struggled to cope with the Thistle front men.

As goalkeeper Antti Niemi pointed out, the influence which Pressley has out on the park should not be underestimated.

"Elvis is the main man in defence for us," said the Finn, "and I felt we badly missed him at the weekend.

"He is a good organiser and with both him and Kevin out of the line-up it meant something of a reshuffle for the gaffer. Having said that, though, we cannot use that as a reason for the defeat and we all know we should have still been able to get the job done against Inverness.

"We all let the club down with our performance and that was the most disappointing thing.

"Credit to Caley, though, they scored two great goals, although I think I maybe could have come out quicker at their third one.

"I saw Tommi Gronlund running back with their forward but to be honest he isn’t our quickest player so maybe I could have done a bit more to help him in that situation."

Taken from the Scotsman