Hearts fell to a 3-1 defeat against FC Thun in matchday three of the UEFA Conference League.
Jamie McCart’ first-half own goal was followed up by Brighton Labeau’s 34th minute strike, with Furkun Dursan grabbing a third ten minutes into the restart before Stuart Findlay headed a consolation late on in Switzerland.
Head Coach Wouter Vrancken made two changes from the last run out. Findlay and Sabri Guendouz came in to the starting eleven in the place of the injured Calvin Miller and Tomas Magnusson.
There was a five minute delay to proceedings thanks to pyro emanating from the home end. Once the smoke had cleared, Stephen Kingsley’s thrown in found Claudio Braga inside the box and he teed up Josh McPake, but this low drive was straight at Niklas Steffen.
McPake was next to test the keeper. He was fed by the advancing Guendouz, cutting inside and away from two Thun players before watching his left-foot effort being pushed away by Steffen.
The hosts then took the lead after 22 minutes in bizarre fashion. A long ball was knocked into the Hearts box and the backtracking McCart got their ahead of his man to send it back to Beau Reus, but he couldn’t dive onto it and the ball crept into the bottom corner of the net.
A quick Thun breakaway just after the half hour mark had them 2-0 up. Nils Reichmuth darted into the box and although his cross was stopped by Kingsley, it fell straight into the path of Labeau who slotted beyond Reus.
Hearts went close to pulling one back soon after when Kingsley’s set piece was deflected and bounced around the area before falling to Sabah Kerjota, but he screwed his effort wide and the flag went up for offside.
Reus then had to look smart to deny Thun a third, pouncing to his right to push away Reichmuth’s well-placed shot.
Reichmuth was in the mix again soon after, playing a one-two to get into the box before sending a shot well over the crossbar.
Just before the first half was out, Guendouz darted into the box and cut back inside before flashing an effort across the face of goal but that foothold back into the game eluded the Jambos.
Reus had to be alert three minutes into the restart after Furkam Dursun sent a curling effort through a gaggle of grey shirts and towards the right-hand corner, but the big Dutchman flung himself to palm the ball away.
Reichmuth forced Reus into action again on 55 minute, curling another low effort to the bottom right corner that the keeper did well to tip away.
A minute later it was 3-0. The influential Reichmuth swung a ball into the near post for Dursun to get a touch on and steer past Reus.
It should’ve been 4-0 moments later when Nico Maier was played clean through, but Reus did well to come out and close the angle, forcing the Thun man’s shot wide of the post.
Malachi Fagan-Walcott was agonisingly close to pulling one back when he got on the end of Jordi Altena’s free kick but Steffan got down to make a fantastic save at his near post, clawing the ball away from his line.
Thun had the ball in the back of net in the 78th minute but it was ruled out for offside, and with seven minutes remaining Findlay pulled one back, nodding in from a free kick to make it 3-1.
All in all it was an evening where not much went right for the Jambos, who must now dust themselves down for the visit of Falkirk on Sunday.
FC Thun: Steffan, Mambwa (Strannegård, 79’), Dursun (Christoffersson, 65’), Käit, Roth, Bamert, Bürki, Maier (Kristal, 65’), Dähler, Reichmuth (Zoukit, 72’), Labeau (Gutbub, 72’).
Subs: Spycher, Bürgy, Braschi, Berbaci, Fehr, Ilic, Lengen.
Hearts: Reus, Kingsley (Gillies, 63’), McCart, Braga, McPake (Wilson, 76’), Findlay, Guendouz (Kabore, 54’), Altena, Kerjota (Williams, 76’), Fagan-Walcot, Mendy.
Subs: Clark, Fulton, Pollock, Stevenson.
