St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright insists his side were punished in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Hearts because not enough of his players were willing to take responsibility.

An impressive run of six successive away victories – including six clean sheets – came to a shuddering halt in Edinburgh as second-half goals from Marcus Godinho and Callumn Morrison put Saints to the sword.

The Perth outfit failed to get a foothold in the game and finished the match without registering a single shot on target.

Saints have also slipped back to sixth in the Ladbrokes Premiership after being leap-frogged by their weekend opponents and Wright admits he was disappointed with his players' showing.

He said: "We started okay for 10 minutes but it's happened twice here now that we've looked lethargic and second to everything.

"You've got to compete to win football games and we didn't.

"We didn't show enough energy and we didn't pass the ball. When you play three at the back, Hearts did it well starting off from the back, but we didn't look to do it.

"There was a lack of people wanting to take responsibility.

"It wasn't until we went to a four (at the back) and brought Danny Swanson on that we looked like we wanted to pass the ball.

"Even that period wasn't good enough to create many chances."

Hearts broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute when Godinho cushioned an inch-perfect John Souttar pass before drilling a low effort beyond Zander Clark.

Substitute Morrison sealed the win in injury time with a strike across goal after being teed up inside the area by Olly Lee.

Following last Wednesday's 2-1 setback at home to Dundee, Levein was delighted with his players' response.

He said: "Although the first half was very poor against Dundee we actually played some good stuff in the second half.

"So the key was to start where we left off in the second half the other night but add more goals.

"I was thrilled to bits with them on Saturday for their controlled performance. I really can't remember St Johnstone having a shot at goal – and they have a great record away from home.

"The first goal was an unbelievable pass from John Souttar but Marcus showed great composure to bring the ball down – and then he panicked and just hit it, and it went in."