Hearts suffered a setback on their road to recovery under Jim Jefferies with a defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice today but the manager couldn't blame his players as a patchwork side showed plenty of fight and spirit in despite the 1-0 defeat.

An entire starting eleven of Hearts first team players, including captain Michael Stewart who pulled up in the warm-up, missed the match through injury or suspension, meaning Lee Wallace lined up at centre back and David Obua switched from centre forward to left back.

Despite the selection problems Hearts held their own against a strong United team before finally succumbing to Morgaro Gomis deflected winner 13 minutes from time.

The final score disappointed the Tynecastle boss as he felt his players could have got something out of this game.

Jim said: "I can't fault the effort with the number of players we've got out and players playing out of position. I thought the quality could have been better but that'll improve once we start to get some of these players back from injury.

"For me we were the best team in the opening 25-30 minutes. We were sharp, we were quick to the ball and we had them penned in.

"We got over the blow of losing Michael Stewart with the early change with Paul Mulrooney coming in because we got a real find there as he had a great game. But in that period you have to score and the first goal was always going to be big.

"United came into it a bit more towards the end of the first half and on into the second and they put us under a lot of pressure. They had a couple of opportunities they put over the bar and we did well to block a couple of shots but the time we needed a bit of luck it's spun off Jason Thomson and beaten the goalkeeper.

"I was just hoping that we could have got something out of the game with what we had to do and we might have had we taken advantage of our play in the first 25 minutes."

One surprise inclusion in the Hearts' rearguard was the return of Jose Goncalves after his recent exile through injury and protracted contract negotiations with the club.

Jim was quick to explain his reason for selecting Jose, insisting that his attitude towards the Portuguese defender remains the same, sheer pragmatism as a result of the mammoth injury and suspension list the simple reason he was selected.

He said: "What we've said is that discussions are ongoing, he's been offered a very good deal that I don't understand why he hasn't taken, so I can only assume it's because he doesn't want to be here.

"Because of that I've said that I'll only want to concentrate on players who do want to be here, the only problem today was that those players were not available.

"But Jose's come in and did a great job. If he couldn't play today then I don't know who I could have picked."

On Hearts.TV tonight - Listen to post-match reaction from Jim and defender Jason Thomson