Everything Dundee did well before the break was in stark contrast to Hearts, who struggled to reach the level they reached against Rangers last weekend.

After switching to a back five, they were sluggish in possession and struggled to create meaningful scoring opportunities, with their talisman Lawrence Shankland barely involved in the proceedings.

Clark’s botched clearance followed immediately after being beaten at the near post for Tiffoney’s goal and was indicative of a team’s sloppy performance.

They were outmatched by Dundee in terms of both combat and output, but looked to be going into half-time a goal down before losing all discipline after a chaotic few minutes.

Taylor – who was so imposing against the Rangers – was lucky to only be shown a yellow card for a wild foul on Tiffoney. The Costa Rican defender got his feet tangled and his attempt to clear went past Clark, who was caught flat-footed.

Kent then unnecessarily left his leg dangling in the penalty area and in no time at all the score went from 1-0 to 3-0.

Naismith showed his displeasure at half-time with a triple substitution: he brought on Yan Dhanda, Malachi Boateng and Yutaro Oda. It made a difference, but the damage had already been done.

In addition to the mistakes in our own penalty area before the break, we also missed some miserable shots in the second half.

Kent headed the ball home to give Hearts hope, but Oda failed to reach a superb cross from Dhanda and headed the ball from four yards out straight at Jon McCracken in the Dundee goal.

A day to forget for Hearts, who will need to improve when they face Falkirk in the League Cup next Saturday.