Hearts skipper Shankland looking to keep the good times going against Hibs

The striker has found a rich vein of goal scoring form and is trying to keep the distraction of transfer talk out of his mind.

Lawrence Shankland netted his 14th and 15th goals of the season in Saturday's 2-0 win over St Mirren and wants to keep his recent goal scoring run going when they take to the pitch at Easter Road.

The Hearts skipper has been in superb form in recent weeks and that has only served to intensify the amount of speculation around his future. Of course, the 28-year old wouldn't be drawn on his future and is instead fully focused on trying to pick up another three points with his Jambos teammates.

He said: "I've been through it before, speculation is just a sign really that you're doing well and you're doing your job properly. That's how I look at it, I'm enjoying my football at the moment, scoring goals and things are going well so I don't need to concentrate on much more than that. I don't deal with that, the club will deal with it and I just keep concentrating on scoring goals and winning games." 

Asked if he felt he would still be at Tynecastle by the end of the January window, he joked: "Have you got a crystal ball I can look at?" before continuing... "I have a year and a half on my contract and I'm enjoying my football and scoring goals. Speculation follows you when you're doing well and I don't see it as anything more than that and I won't until the future." 

Following on from the 2-0 win over Celtic in Glasgow the Jambos backed up that result with another strong performance at home to St Mirren. Shankland's first goal was a classic, poachers finish but his second was a moment of pure class.

"I've come off the back of a season last year where I scored a lot of goals. I had a wee bit of an off patch after the European games, a wee bit of a dry spell, but I always believed I'd be back scoring goals and I'm glad to see them going back in. I'm in December with 15 so I've got good numbers so far. 

"It (the second v St Mirren) was a good hit obviously. I knew right away by the way I caught it that it was flying in, I had a good line behind it as well and the ball didn't move much til, it hit the top corner. It's always nice when you get them like that, it was a good finish. It was my weaker side, the way it worked out it was like a half volley and I caught it on the bounce, a really good goal. 

"You just try to be in and around the goal, I think the first one (against St Mirren) shows that, I just managed to get a bit of space on the second phase of a set play and managed to get my head on it. To be honest it was a bit closer to the goalie than I wanted it to be but it was just about getting it on target because I was so close. The second one was a good goal but when you're in rich form you just try and be around the goals and be there when the ball drops. 

"Usually when you go through dry spells it's just a case of getting one and more seem to follow. At the time it feels like you're making the wrong runs all the time and then your luck changes a wee bit. When you're sniffing them out it feels good and it feels like it becomes easier."

In general, derbies have been positive experiences during Shankland's time with Hearts and he is hoping that will continue on Wednesday.

He said: "They've been pretty positive overall, with a lot of good results. The last one was quite disappointing the way the game ended but they kind of take care of themselves, they're always a good atmosphere and this one being at night time will add to it as well being under the floodlights. It's one we can look forward to, we're going in in good form and hopefully we can go there and get a win. 

"It's been two very good results for us, last week at Parkhead was a big one and I think it was important we backed it up against St Mirren and I think we did that really well with another good performance and win so we're going in in-form and it's one we can look forward to."