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Hearts players had a heart-to-heart after their defeat by St Mirren

Hearts goalkeeper Steve Banks has revealed that the club's players have held crisis talks after Wednesday's 1-0 defeat at home to St Mirren.

The loss was the latest disappointment in a form slump that has left Hearts in third bottom spot in the SPL.

"I think a few of the senior players thought the players needed to have a meeting with no staff there," Banks told his club website.

"There were a few things said that have not been said before."

The first meeting was held immediately after the defeat at Tynecastle and another on Thursday morning.

Hearts were refusing to comment about the meetings.

They told the truth, which is a lot easier to deal with as you can react to the truth Hearts goalkeeper Steve Banks

But the Boxing Day defeat had left assistant first-team coach Stephen Frail admitting that they had now been dragged into a battle against relegation.

Frail once again complained about the lack of fight displayed by his side.

And Banks, who had returned to the starting line-up following suspension to Eduardas Kurskis, said the players later "looked deep in their heart about how they felt".

"They told the truth, which is a lot easier to deal with as you can react to the truth and make decisions about that," said the goalkeeper and coach.

"We need to start looking over our shoulders and it will really be a dogfight.

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"Silly mistakes have cost us. But, looking back over the season, it is results on the table that people look at, not performances."

Banks thought that Boxing Day heralded in one of their worst displays of the season.

And he said that, while he thought the club was too good to go down, it was open to question whether the players were.