'We're still top of the league' - McInnes' Hearts reminder to himself & doubters

Derek McInnes admitted he needs to keep himself "in check" to avoid any overreaction to Hearts' slip-up at Livingston.

The Scottish Premiership title chasers moved back top of the league once more in West Lothian, but it came in a 2-2 draw against Livingston, the top flight's bottom side.

And with Rangers and Celtic both winning over the weekend, Hearts have lost ground, with their lead of three points from last weekend cut to just one.

"We go a point clear with six games to go, we're still top of the league and people need to remember that, I'm trying to keep myself in check with that," he told BBC Sport Scotland.

"It's a missed opportunity today. We came here with a lot of motivation and a lot of expectation on ourselves but we have to be honest and say that the point was probably all we deserved.

"It might be a really important point come the end of the season, so we're not going to get too hung up on it.

"It does put more scrutiny on the games coming up and obviously we want to make sure we win the next home game which will be tough enough as well."

It's not the first time in recent weeks that McInnes has cut a rather dejected figure after an away game.

They're winless in their last four on the road, which includes visits to the bottom pair - Kilmarnock and Livingston.

The latest game will sting all the more as they had come from behind to lead, thanks to Claudio Braga's 13th league goal of the season.

"I'm more disappointed than anything because we'd done so much to get ourselves in front and we needed to enjoy being in front a bit more - I think it was seven minutes between both goals," McInnes added.

"We came out second half and we felt the goal was coming. When we were good in the game, we were very good.

"We were polished and connected the game well and looked after the ball well, we were very good and at times in the game we looked like a team at the top of the league.

"But there was just too many moments where we were sloppy, a bit anxious with some of our defending, the gaps were too big between us at times."

Indeed, Livingston's leveller came from a slack pass when Craig Halkett failed to find Islam Chesnokov on the right-hand side.

Livi broke up their left and Cristian Montano's cross found Lewis Smith, who slammed home at the back post.

"The second goal is a ridiculous goal to lose, so we're disappointed with that," the Hearts head coach said. "You can't keep pulling yourself off the canvas.

"Half an hour to go, I wanted to try and carry a bit more threat in that but what you've got to remember is you're up against a team at the bottom of the league and all of a sudden they've got something to hang on to."

After Celtic's away win at Dundee, it is now Martin O'Neill's side who have the best away record in the league. Rangers are behind them, with Hearts in third.

The Jambos have only lost five games all season, but all of those defeats have come on the road - to Aberdeen, Hibs, St Mirren, Rangers and Kilmarnock.

McInnes though, was keen to dispel the idea that going away to the likes of Rugby Park and Almondvale are an easy six points.

"There's no easy games in the league," he said. We've had a poor 20 minutes at Kilmarnock really and got ourselves behind, but we didn't do enough to win that game either.

"The last couple we've been guilty of losing poor goals and not doing enough to win games. The game at St Mirren was 10 men [after Craig Halkett's red card] and then we lose the game at Ibrox and I thought we were very good in the game."

"We're going to have to be really strong with our home form as we have been all season but there's no doubting that a couple of big results on the road wouldn't do us any harm. That's where we need to try and address it."