Woeful defending sends Kilmarnock to Hearts defeat and relegation play-off spot

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Abject defending cost Kilmarnock dearly as a 3-2 defeat at Hearts sent them into the relegation play-off spot.The away side had a helping hand in all three Hearts goals, who jumped above their opponents in the process.While Elton Kabangu's seventh minute opener had a touch of fortune to it the Belgian striker was still left unmarked to open the scoring.Hearts passed up some decent chances to add to their lead but Killie answered back early in the second half when Bobby Wales fired home at the front post.But just 10 minutes later the hosts were 3-1 to the good as Jamie McCart was left unmarked to head home from a corner before Jorge Grant inexplicably beat Kieran O'Hara in the air to double the lead.Fraser Murray cut the deficit in half with a fine headed finish at the back post while Craig Gordon produced a sensational late save to deny David Watson late on to keep the points in Edinburgh.Derek McInnes handed a debut to loan signing Calvin Ramsay with O'Hara being recalled to the starting line-up in goal following Robby McCrorie's fractured cheekbone last week against Celtic.A youthful looking bench for the visitors included Aidan Glavin, Aaron Brown, Ethan Brown and Ben Brannan - a total of a single first team appearance for the quartet.Kilmarnock started brightly and were first to every loose ball, but it was Hearts who opened the scoring in fortuitous circumstances on seven minutes.

Grant's attempted volley was mishit into the path of James Wilson. He fired back across goal with the ball falling kindly to Kabangu to tap home his first league goal for the Jambos.That strike settled the hosts who took control of proceedings, although they were unable to further threaten O'Hara despite working themselves into some decent