After sitting down to face the media, Craig Halkett takes a full deep breath in through his nostrils and slowly exhales, as if blowing out a candle.
The Heart of Midothian defender is annoyed, though it is difficult to tell what is bothering him more: the fact that his side dropped points at home or the yellow card, his sixth of the season, that has ruled him out of the trip to Pittordrie on the other side of the international break.
The centre-back feels hard done by with the booking he picked up in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Dundee United. His manager had a slightly different opinion after the game, but noted that he thought referee John Beaton should have blown for a foul on Stephen Kingsley seconds before.
It is the defender’s sixth caution of the season, ruling him out for the trip to Aberdeen after the international break.
“I can't lie, I'm fizzing. It's still boiling in me now,” said Halkett. “I think especially that one [on Sunday], because obviously you're going into the game knowing that you're one [booking] away and I just thought it was a 50-50 tackle.
“We both collided with the ball. You can't help what direction the ball goes in. I think just because it went the way he was facing, he's given me the booking, but I don’t think it's a yellow card and it's really disappointing.”
Halkett takes some responsibility for picking up a yellow card in half of his league matches so far, but this isn’t the first time this season he has felt hard done by.
“Looking over all the games where I've been booked, there are a few of them that are probably not deserved, but again I've got to take some on my accountability,” he added.
“There are some that I have got that I probably shouldn't have. It's just frustrating, missing a game. I want to play in every game this season, so to come out against Aberdeen, which is going to be a massive game, it's hugely disappointing.”
The aggressive centre-back doesn’t want to change how he plays, even if he is one poorly timed challenge or a contentious referee decision away from a suspension.
How Hearts have approached games this season, with a high defensive line and sometimes man-for-man at the back, can leave defenders vulnerable to one-v-ones and at the risk of making last-ditch tackles.
Sunday’s booking came after a challenge a fair way into the Dundee United half as Halkett looked to keep the pressure on in his side's search for a winner.
“You're aware of it before you go into the game,” he said. “When you've got that fifth booking, people at the club tell you that you're one away. But I'm a defender, I need to make hard tackles, I need to challenge for everything.
“You don't change the way you play and unfortunately I've picked up six bookings this year and I'm missing a game.
“Going into the game, I wasn't thinking about maybe not making a tackle or not going for a header because if I got booked I was missing a game, but I think it's hugely frustrating because I feel hard done by in the yellow card.”
After missing the recent win over Dundee at the end of a three-game week, the game in Pittodrie will be just the second league game this season that Halkett has missed.
It is a fixture in which Hearts will be looking to put to bed another long-running unwanted record.
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After recording their first win at Ibrox for 11 years earlier in the campaign, the Scottish Premiership league-leaders will be aiming for their first victory at Pittodrie since 2016 – when Derek McInnes was the Aberdeen manager.
Missing such a huge game makes it all the more disappointing for the 30-year-old.
“I sat out the game [the weekend before against Dundee]. It was a number of things: being on the five yellow cards, playing the majority of the games this season,” explained Halkett.
“We had a discussion that it had been quite a long time since I had played three games in six or seven days, whatever it was. I think it was good and the right time just to give my body a rest and make sure I'm staying fit and feeling healthy.
“But I missed that game, came back in for Sunday's game, we're going to have a break now and then we come back and I'm missing the next game. So yeah, it's frustrating.”
Halkett said the international break will be used to reflect on the first 12 matches in the Scottish Premiership.
Hearts have dropped points in three of those matches. In the first, they rescued a point from nowhere and carried the momentum on with them. It says a lot after the other two – recent draws with United and St Mirren – the mood has been more like that of a defeat.
But it is because, regardless of the fortunes of Hearts, Halkett believes the club should be winning its home games.
“It's important that we are disappointed that we didn't win the game. But I think when we go on the break next week and we look back at this first quarter and then the first game, we're unbeaten, we've not lost a game,” he said.
“The league position is what it is, but it's more just about when we play at Tynecastle, we want to win every game and obviously we didn't do that today.
“In my whole time here, if you don't win your home games, it's always disappointing, it doesn't matter how you're playing.
“So I don't think how well we've done at the start of the season makes much of a difference. It's just a one-off game at home and we never won it.
“I know we've been on a good run, we've got a good number of points, but I still think if everyone is honest, we've still got a wee bit more to give.”
