IAN Cathro last night defended his decision to drop Jamie Walker from his squad in the wake of the embarrassing 2-2 draw with Dunfermline which resulted in Hearts being dumped out of the Betfred Cup.

Cathro was subjected to abuse from his own supporters as the Tynecastle club, beaten by part-time League Two club Peterhead away from home in midweek, failed to progress beyond the group stages of the competition.

The 31-year-old had left Walker, his outstanding performer last season, out in the must-win group game because he felt that the continuing speculation surrounding his future had started to impact on his performances.

The winger, who has turned down the offer of a new contract with Hearts in the summer, has been the subject of two failed bids from their Premiership rivals Rangers.

“The situation with Jamie is that he's a young talented player who this club will continue to support,” said Cathro.

“He's been dealing with a remarkable degree of speculation and attention. I think it’s been quite a difficult situation for him. Initially, he dealt with it well. However, he's struggled to maintain his performance and focus levels with us.

“He has to understand that there are levels which have to be matched on a daily basis. If you can't do that, you won't have a place in the squad or the team.”

Asked if he thought Walker was attempting to hasten his departure from Hearts, he said: “Is it a calculated act on his part after the speculation? I don't want to comment on that. Those are games for other people to play. I can only work with what the players give me.

“Of course, we’ll support him. I love his talent, I love the way that he plays. But I would say just now it’s starting to affect his focus and his performance levels with us a little bit.

“Jamie is a Hearts player, an incredibly talented one, one I enjoy working with and he just has to respond correctly and work his way back into the team.”

Cathro, meanwhile, accepted full responsibility for the goal which allowed Dunfermline, who topped Group B after drawing the game 2-2 and then winning a penalty shoot-out for a bonus point 3-1, to score their second goal early in the second half.

He admitted that he should have substituted John Souttar, who slipped and gifted Callum Smith possession, at half-time. “I will be taking the responsibility for the error because John probably should have come off,” he said. “It was a conditioning issue, tiredness. So rather than directing the blame at him I would prefer that you did that at me.”

Hearts, who needed to triumph in their final group game to progress, took the lead through Don Cowie in the 20th minute. However, they only held the lead for eight minutes before Joe Cardle levelled with an outstanding individual effort.

Declan McManus put Allan Johnston’s side in front six minutes into the second half. Esmael Goncalves grabbed a late equaliser for Cathro’s team with three minutes of regulation time remaining. But it was not enough.

“The result isn’t good enough,” said Cathro. “We are angry and disappointed. In the second half they managed to start quicker than us. That is probably the point we started to fall below the levels that we needed to be at.

“We had a few chances at the end of the game and the situation could have been resolved. But, of course, across the piece it's a result which is far from acceptable and not good enough.”

Johnston, who was missing his top scorer Nick Clark and new signing Dean Shiels, was delighted with both the result and with his second tier club topping their qualifying section. He is hoping he will be able to strengthen his squad further before the knockout rounds get underway.

“We’re short of numbers and still have to add three or four players that can improve us,” he said. “We’ve been trying to do that for the last month or two.”

The former Hearts winger had sympathy for his opposite number, who has brought in the likes of Scotland centre half Christophe Berra and Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty in the close season, and urged the Tynecastle faithful to be patient.

“I’m sure they will turn it around,” he said. “You need to give it some time. Hearts have a lot of new signings and have plenty of quality in there. I’m sure they will get it right.

“This is still a club on the up, you can see they are going in the right direction, with the main stand, the training ground and youth academy. It is a massive club going in the right direction. The fans need to be a bit patient at the moment.”