Reid slates Accies after defeat.

Despondent Hamilton manager Billy Reid was scathing in his assessment of his team after their defeat by Hearts, their second consecutive 4-0 loss."It was comic-cut, embarrassing. Some of the individual mistakes were quite incredible," said Reid, who had defender Martin Canning sent off.

"We go down to 10 men then we get caught on the ball, (Calum) Elliot goes through and we bring him down.

"Four penalties in two games - it can't happen at this level."

Asked if the performance could be described as a "shambles", Reid said: "I don't have any disagreement with that.

"We've lost the nucleus of a team.

"If you look at (Trent) McLenahan, (Brian) Easton, (James) McArthur, (James) Weslowski, (Mickael) Antoine-Curier, then you miss (David) Elebert, (Alex) Neil, (Mark) McLaughlin, you're talking about a lot of a Hamilton Accies team that is not playing.

"But that still does not excuse how we defended today. Elliot was allowed to cut inside and go right through the middle of the three.

"For the second goal, we haven't shut the ball down at all. The wee boy has had two bites of the cherry and smashed it into the top corner."

Reid had been hoping for a big improvement on Accies' 4-0 defeat at Pittodrie on the opening day of the season.

And, for a spell in the second period against Hearts, he thought it had arrived.

"In the second half, we dominated for a 15-20 minute spell. We had the one that hit the bar and we had two or three close things," said the beleaguered Accies boss.

"We then went man for man and young Kyle Wilkie was caught in the middle of the park and they were through three for one. Absolutely crazy stuff.

If people make mistakes like that, there's not much I can do on the sidelines

Hamilton manager Billy Reid

"It just wasn't good enough.

"It falls at my door and we'll have to stand up and be counted in the next few weeks.

"But, if people make mistakes like that, there's not much I can do on the sidelines."

Pained by the absence through injury of experienced players Neil and McLaughlin in the spine of his team, describing them as "my two leaders", Reid issued a warning to his team.

"I've said to them, 'if you're not pulling your weight, I'll bring some of the young kids in and nurture them'," he said.

"I thought last week was a blip with the 4-0; obviously it wasn't. We have to solidify things. There are a lot of new faces and some of the old faces are not doing well enough."

Source: BBC Sport