Jefferies felt his side could have defended better against Rangers

Hearts boss Jim Jefferies blamed "bad defending" for his team's defeat against Rangers at Tynecastle.

The Edinburgh side went down 4-1 to the Scottish Premier League leaders at Tynecastle in the lunchtime kick-off.

And Jefferies feels more could have been done to stop Rangers scoring twice either side of the interval.

"We beat ourselves today, there's no doubt about that. We defended badly today and we got punished for it and you can't do that," said Jefferies.

"When you delegate somebody to pick up somebody else and they don't, that's the frustrating bit for me.

"There's a lot to be happy about in terms of performance and a lot not to be happy about in terms of defending.

"We've come in and praised the boys at half-time because it was a good first half and the deficit was just down to two basic errors.

"So, we said, 'let's make sure we cut out the mistakes' but we go and make the same thing.

"If we cut out the mistakes you can see the quality of the play today, which is improving."

The visitors took the lead in the fifth minute courtesy of a Danny Wilson header but it was not long before Suso Santana levelled for the home side.

A goal on the half-hour from Kenny Miller put Rangers in the lead and two second-half goals from Steven Naismith sealed the Glasgow side's victory.

"We talked before the game about not taking any chances at the back, it's bumpy and blustery and you should just play the percentages," Jefferies added.

"The fourth one was the icing on the cake in terms of mistakes because giving somebody like Steven Naismith a free header in the six-yard box was just asking for trouble."

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