Ross County 1-3 Hearts produced some SPFL Premiership headlines in Dingwall

Hearts’ No.9 who scores all the time hasn’t quite lived up to that reputation this season. Lawrence Shankland’s two goals in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Ross County were his sixth and seventh goals of the season with three games remaining. It is a stark contrast to totals of 28 and 33 he posted in the previous two campaigns. A change of role helped amid plenty tension in the Highlands.

Ross County scored first through Ronan Hale, prompting many among the 890 travelling Hearts fans to bawl loud chants of discontent at the Tynecastle board. Finishing in the bottom six, then losing to Dundee and falling behind to County pushed some to voice their anger. None of the high-ranking directors were in attendance at the Global Energy Stadium, but that didn’t stop several renditions of “Sack the board” plus “Heart of Midlothian, we’re in the wrong hands” and “Ann Budge, you’re yesterday’s news” from the away end.

Shankland intervened five minutes before half-time with the equaliser, then prodded home his second on 58 minutes after a sublime passing move by the visitors. The captain supplied a low cross for Alan Forrest to score the third near full-time. Shankland played in the traditional striker’s role, flanked by Forrest and Vargas in a 4-3-3 formation implemented by interim Hearts head coach Liam Fox. It worked, particularly during a strong second-half display, and supporters left Dingwall happier with their team a week on from head coach Neil Critchley’s sacking.

“That was an important game for us,” acknowledged Shankland. “It was important to get a result and obviously we wanted to come out and win the game and we managed to do that. I thought the performance was really good as well at times. We worked on a lot of stuff through the week and you could kind of see it coming together out there, the things that we tried to work on. So it's always pleasing to see that in games. Obviously, we get good goals as well and we'll win it comfortably.”

Shankland as a Hearts No.9 at Ross County

On a personal level, Saturday was a day Shankland really needed. Leading the forward line in as a No.9 again seemed to revitalise him after long periods in a deeper role this season. “It was a good day. Obviously slightly changed the role again,” he said. “It was back through the middle with two wide men and I felt like it worked well up against County's back three. We utilised the space down the sides and they kind of gave me space to operate in the middle.

“The couple of moments in the first half, I just never quite got it under control in the runaway phase. But the ideas were there that we were trying to work on and eventually we got the first goal - the equaliser - and went to show a bit of character to come back after a good finish from the boy [Ronan] Hale.

“It was probably their first shot in the game, I think, so when you've been in that much control, you're obviously thinking: 'Here we go again.' I thought we showed good character to stick at what we were doing. We get the equaliser and obviously we won the second half and got two more goals.”

Shankland is philosophical when asked if he does his best work as a No.9. “It can be. It probably depends on the system. Saturday's system? Aye, probably. When I've got two pacy players either side of me, that does help me because they can get in and operate in their spaces and I don't need to. I stay in the middle and I think my career has probably shown that, if I get in and around the six-yard box, or the 18-yard box, that's where I get my goals.

“I'm not saying that against the system we've been playing in the past. I'm familiar with the No.10 role as well. It's obviously a different system because you play with two pacy strikers in and you're trying to support them and feed them. But in Saturday's system, that does suit me.”

He would now like to take his goals tally into double figures before the season ends and his Hearts contract expires. “It would be, aye. I'd never turn my nose up at 10 goals,” he said. “I've got three games to go and try and do that, but the most important thing was getting a win on Saturday. You could feel the pressure throughout the week obviously with everything that went on. It had a big-game feel about it. You could feel that amongst the boys. The changing room was a wee bit quiet before the game. I said: 'I'm fine with everybody being quiet. We just make sure we're ready to go and perform.' And, to be honest, we were.

“You could feel like we were on it from the start. I felt we tried to do things properly. We tried to do what we worked on. The passing was quite sharp at times. We just tried to work our opportunities to show a bit of character to come back after what I think was County's first shot. But we did it well. It was a good response. For everyone, I thought we did well.

“I probably only looked at one team scoring until County did. After that, I probably thought it was the same. We had one off the line to be fair, from a long throw. We had a couple of balls there. We had a couple of moments like that throughout the game. We had to defend the goal and defend our six-yard box. In games like that, you need to stand up to it. I thought the boys did that really well. Throughout the game, Frankie [Kent] helped and Beni [Baningime] really controlled that element. We didn't get turnovers too much and we could keep them in their half. I think overall, it was good. There were a lot of positives.”

Where are the Hearts board?

Supporters’ chants weren’t among them, but their feelings are understandable towards the end of a campaign in which Hearts have underachieved. Shankland felt his team-mates dealt with it well. “You obviously hear it and it creates an atmosphere that's not hugely positive,” he admitted. “But I think, as players, you need to put that to the side and focus on what you're believing in on the pitch. I felt we did that. You could obviously hear the noise around the game, but I felt we really stuck to our plan and it was important. I don't think we drifted our focus too far from the game. As I said, we managed to get an equaliser, so it was a good response.”

Forrest’s goal brought reward for a one of several Hearts players who has endured a difficult season. “I was delighted for him,” said Shankland. “It was a great moment for him and I just said to him to go and celebrate it. He's had a tough season. He's obviously probably not played as much as he wanted. Cast back to Tynecastle, I remember him getting a lot of stick one day and it's never nice when one of your team-mates has to go through that. I've had it myself this season at points, but it's never nice to see.

“Alan's the type of character who works so hard every day. His attitude is brilliant. He's a credit to himself. Just to see him get that moment, I was delighted. He obviously had the chance in the first half and I thought I'd sent him through, but he took a touch. To be honest, there was maybe a wee bit too much on the pass when it bounced. I was just really, really happy for him to score.”