Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland: 'People think we don't care about our job. It controls your life'

SNS Group

Clenched fists and gritted teeth were Lawrence Shankland’s instinctive reactions to scoring his first goal of the season. It’s that kind of situation at Hearts right now: Anything positive means everything. The captain didn’t know much about his headed equaliser in the dying seconds against Ross County but is clinging to hope that it inspires a revival in Gorgie.

If it doesn’t, Hearts are starting a relegation battle square in the face. That’s the blunt truth. Shankland’s goals have been conspicuous by their absence this season, although others have failed to contribute during his recent drought. He scored 31 times for the Edinburgh club last term as they finished third in the Premiership. Now they are bottom with two points from seven league games after drawing 1-1 with County. When Shankland isn’t scoring, Hearts tend not to be winning.

He admitted events have played on his mind after every game this season. For the first time in history, Hearts have failed to win any of their first 10 competitive matches. Overthinking is natural. “It's impossible not to. Everybody will be the same, especially with the run of results we've been on,” commented Shankland. “I think people tend to think that football players don't care about their job. It controls your life, you know what I mean?

“You are sitting there for a full week thinking about it after every game when you aren't getting a result. You just want the next game to be there. That's been where we are. Hopefully Saturday is just that wee bit of positivity that can change that and swing the luck. First and foremost, it was good to get a point back on the board. The run we’ve been on has been disappointing, it’s been difficult.

“Sometimes you need to just break that chain. We should have won, we had chances. I had a couple, so did Cammy [Devlin]. We had chances to win the game. If we take them we’d obviously be more comfortable, but the way we’ve been, that probably sums it up. Thankfully enough we managed to take one in the end and get the point. I got a header on it. I didn’t really see it going in. I was probably still thinking about the chance two seconds before it, to be honest. Thankfully enough it bounced in.”

The Scotland internationalist hit the crossbar and then saw the legs of County goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw block his shot in a one-v-one situation seconds before the equaliser. “It just broke to me pretty quickly. I tried to slide it past him, but he’s come off his line pretty fast and got a leg to it,” explained Shankland. “I obviously knew it was late on in the game and that was a big chance. I probably was still thinking about that, to be honest. Thankfully enough I’ve managed to get my head on the next one.

“I think as a collective as well we needed a goal to go in the net. You get a chance like we did in the first minute, you’re just waiting on that rippling the net. The boy [Ryan Leak] gets a block. I don’t even know where he comes from. He get’s his leg on it. I’m thinking, ‘How’s he blocked that?’ That’s just the trend. It seems to be the way when you’re going through difficult times. Things like that seem to happen.

“Personally, today was better in terms of opportunities. There were a few there for me. I should have scored with the header in the first half. The one that hits the bar is quite unlucky, to be honest. And the one at the end is a good chance, but the good thing was: you need to keep getting in there and getting chances and then eventually you get the goal. Of course, we wanted to win the game. But I think, with the run we’ve been on, we need to take the positives from the point.”

Shankland has been judged on his prolific scoring exploits ever since arriving at Hearts more than two years ago. Not scoring for weeks on end is almost alien to him. “Obviously, it’s difficult. You’re a striker, that’s solely what I’m judged on off the back of my last two seasons, which were obviously very successful. It can be difficult to manage it as well because you have done so well. You need failure to get success, in a way. But you just keep plugging away and usually your luck changes, and something like that can change it. Hopefully I can go on a run now.”

It would be timely should that indeed transpire. Hearts face Dinamo Minsk behind closed doors in Azerbaijan on Thursday as their UEFA Conference League campaign begins. More Shankland goals would be rather handy. “It's good, it's a nice break from the league and a different competition to have a go at,” he said. “Sometimes it can be different games, they are enjoyable and hopefully we can get a few good positive results throughout the league stage.

“Playing behind closed doors will be a throwback to 2020, unfortunately. It will be the same for everybody. I don't think anybody enjoys playing in front of an empty stadium but if we can go there and get a result then I'm sure we will leave the place happy. We feel the draw has not been too bad to us if you look at it from the outside. Hopefully we can pick up a few positive results and enjoy that experience because we earned it last year and we deserve to go and enjoy the competition. When we get back to league business, hopefully we can pick up where we left off.”