Gary Locke, the Hearts manager, has found it tricky to get over his side's Scottish League Cup semi-final loss to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, despite escaping to Peebles for a few days in an effort to recover.
The Tynecastle side lost on penalties earlier this month to an Inverness side which had been reduced to nine men and were unable to respond last weekend as they were already out of the William Hill Scottish Cup. Locke gave himself and his players a few days off instead, but has admitted that he is affected by the cup defeat.
"It has felt like a long time since we last played and it has been a really difficult period after the way we lost the semi-final," said Locke. "Having such a long break possibly made it worse. I got that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach [after losing to Inverness] and I've had that for over a week now."
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