John McGlynn lamented the "same old story" as his Hearts side lost 3-1 at home to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premier League.
Cillian Sheridan bagged all three of the visitors' goals before Marius Zaliukas headed in a late consolation for the home side.
Hearts had looked poised to break the deadlock prior to Sheridan's first-half header, and McGlynn was left to ponder another game in which Hearts had their moments but could not take any points from.
"We were well on top in the first half," said McGlynn. "We had lots of corners and free-kicks, many opportunities to score. If you look at the stats you'll see the score wasn't a fair reflection.
"If you get the first goal it's a different complexion on the game altogether. It's the same old story for us in games we've lost.
"We're not taking our chances early in the game and our opponents get their goal. Kilmarnock had created very little in the first half and we found ourselves having dominated but going in a goal down.
"There's 45 minutes to go, it's not the end of the world. I thought we started the second half on top, but the crucial thing was the second goal, which I thought was offside."
Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels saw the game differently. His side had looked confident and assured in play throughout most of the second half and he was pleased they were able to get to that level of play having successfully defended Hearts' first-half superiority.
"I thought we deserved the win beyond a shadow of a doubt," Shiels said. "I thought we were disciplined and controlled in the game.
"We knew as the away team, coming here, we were going to have to defend a lot of free-kicks and corner kicks.
"The psychology of the game was similar to last week, we got the goal and ourselves in front and we were then able to nullify their threats and the players had the confidence to play and win victory of the ball, which I was pleased with.
"We're not far off the bottom, and we need to be aware of the teams that are down there. We need to stay above that danger zone and stay in the top six, away from that position."
