HEARTS may still, until Celtic play Kilmarnock at Rugby Park this afternoon at least, be five points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.

They might also remain undefeated in the league this season despite dropping points for the first time in their sixth game against Livingston yesterday.

Yet, there are likely to be fewer debates about whether they can maintain their impressive start to the season and sustain their challenge for the Scottish title in the coming days after this dire performance and disappointing result.

They failed to deal with defensive opponents who sat deep throughout and only sought to score on the breakaway – something that all good teams in the top flight have, as anyone at Celtic will tell them, to learn to counteract – adequately and could have no complaints about the final outcome.

It was, no doubt about it, a collective off day for John Souttar and his team mates. It is unlikely they will perform much worse, going forward certainly, in the coming weeks and months. But those among their followers who were daring to dream about their future prospects will have lowered their expectations after this.

"There's a big sense of frustration,” said Hearts manager Craig manager. "I thought Livingston's game plan was executed really well. They sat deep, waited for us to over-commit and then tried to hit us on the counter-attack and had a couple of opportunities when they did that.

"But we frustrated me more than Livingston did. I said to the players afterwards there's a level of respect for teams who have done what we have at the start of the season. Teams will come here and sit in and defend and wait and ask us to break them down. That's something that's going to happen on a regular basis.”

Not having Uche Ikpeazu, their imposing 6ft 3in forward who was ruled out as a result of the foot injury he sustained following his challenge of Trevor Carson of Motherwell seven days earlier, playing up front certainly hindered Hearts.

However, when Scott Robinson scythed down Peter Haring from behind, a challenge which he was rightly booked by referee Don Robertson for, in the eighth minute it showed the visitors would be treating the meeting with the league leaders like any other.

Livingtson proceeded to harass, harry and hassle their hosts until the final whistle. It may not have been especially attractive to watch. It certainly killed the atmosphere. But nobody can deny it works for them. Their league position is testament to that. They remain in third position on goal difference.

Jimmy Dunne, who has done a fine job deputising for the injured Christophe Berra at centre half for Hearts, got on the end of an Olly Lee free-kick in the 17th minute and rattled the Livingston crossbar with a header. But his side struggled to create anything from open play.

Levein, who returned to his job last week following a minor health scare, had started watching the encounter from a vantage point high in the main stand. But after half an hour he had seen enough and descended to the technical area. Matters failed to improve greatly.

"I didn't plan to be on the touchline," he said. "But there was a level of frustration, so I went down there trying to get the tempo of the match up to the level we needed it at. We got there in some moments, but not in others”.

Naismith should put Hearts in front in added-on time at the end of the first half after his team mate Steven MacLean was brought down by goalkeeper Liam Kelly inside the Livingston area. Robertson had no hesitation pointing to the spot.

You would have placed a hefty wager on the Scotland striker, the form player in the country in recent weeks and the top scorer in the Premiership, burying the penalty confidently. But Kelly atoned for his moment of rashness by guessing the correct side, his right, and denying the striker.

Both teams had chances to net in the second-half. Scott Pittman and Dolly Menga both forced saves from Zdenek Zlamal while MacLean struck the crossbar in the final minute following a lung-bursting run upfield by Souttar. But a draw was a fair reflection of the 90 minutes.

Gary Holt remains unbeaten since replacing Kenny Miller as manager of Livingston last month and is unrepentant about how his team go about their business.

“It's a wee boost, another building block,” said Holt. “That out there today, that is us. Yes, we want to create a bit more, but that’s us every week. If we turn up and play football we won’t win games or get a result like this. We have to stick to what we’re good at. If we do that every week we’ll get results that’ll keep us high up the league.”