Hearts-Hamilton final word: Surely there will be contingencies for relegation now - as Steven Naismith lays bare what is needed in next 11 matches

When Hearts owner Ann Budge addressed shareholders during the club’s AGM in December, she revealed that the club had not yet planned for the prospect of relegation.

Fast forward nearly three months and the prospect of dropping out of the Ladbrokes Premiership must now be at the forefront of minds for every single person at Tynecastle Park.

Hearts now have 11 games to haul themselves off the foot of the league table after Saturday’s 2-2 draw against relegation rivals Hamilton Accies at home in filthy conditions as Storm Dennis battered Edinburgh.

This match was widely billed as a must-win encounter given the perilous circumstances Hearts find themselves in. However, they are fortunate that the gap between them and 11th-placed Hamilton remains just a solitary point, considering they trailed Brian Rice’s men 2-0 after 16 minutes and looked totally bereft of confidence and ideas. However, a red card shown to Jamie Hamilton for “deliberate” handball on 21 minutes changed the course of the match and, eventually, Hearts pulled level on 86 minutes through Craig Halkett after Jamie Walker’s goal just after the interval halved the arrears.

It is difficult to envisage Hearts salvaging anything from this match had Hamilton not seen red. Marios Ogkmpoe opened the scoring all too easily on five minutes after being slipped in by Scott Martin and ten minutes later, dithering in the penalty box by Hearts’ defence resulted in Sean Clare bringing down Ogkmpoe. The Greek converted coolly and at that point, it looked really, really grim for Hearts.

Accies’ comfort blanket was whipped away from them when Hamilton was given his marching orders for a handball that stopped Liam Boyce going through on goal. The decision appeared slightly on the harsh side, but nobody in maroon was caring. It meant that for the next 70 minutes, the match was played almost exclusively in Accies territory, but for the rest of the first-half, they weathered the Hearts onslaught.

Once Walker netted, it did feel inevitable that a second goal would come. That it took until the 86th minute was the most worrying aspect, for the period in between Hearts laboured as the rain lashed down on an increasingly desperate Tynecastle.

All things considered, the small mercy is that Hamilton did not extend their advantage over Hearts. With St Mirren’s match against Motherwell postponed, the clash between the Buddies – who sit tenth, four points clear of bottom spot – and the Jambos is another huge game for manager Daniel Stendel and his men.

Hearts, however, are going to have to improve so many aspects of their game. They are still outrageously open in defence, with centre-backs Halkett and John Souttar often cruelly exposed by the Jambos’ high-press, high-risk game. They leave too much space in behind them and, in midfield, there is a lack of creativity against a wall of opponents and that leads to limited chances for what is, on paper, a good strike-force that is becoming increasingly starved of good service. Hamilton were organised enough, but it was galling how little ingenuity Hearts found. Only once did they truly pierce Accies’ backline and that was when Steven Naismith’s slide-rule pass sent Walker in to score.

They are going to come up against the same sort of tactics in their remaining matches. They don’t play the Old Firm again in the league and, let’s be frank, thoughts of top-six football – although arithmetically possible – are delusional. They will be scrapping with Accies, St Mirren and Ross County to stay in the division. These are the teams they must show the same spirit as, go toe-to-toe with and, ultimately, defeat.

Club captain Naismith admitted as much after the Hamilton game.

“We have to realise where we are. A hundred per cent,” he said.

“The league, in general, has split the way people would naturally think. Mostly. The teams at the bottom are fighting and they’ve done that regularly.

“St Mirren have done it and stayed up via the play-offs. We can’t be arrogant enough to just say that we’re the better players, we’re the bigger club, we deserve to win these

games.

“Because that’s not how football works. Everybody is rooting for the underdogs. So it’s only the guys in that changing room who can fix this. That has to happen in the coming weeks.”

Naismith is right. Something has to change in the coming weeks, otherwise it won’t be plans for relegation that will be the problem, it will be the reality of it.