Hearts get a Susan Boyle moment as players prepare for derby 'hatred' against Hibs

Lawrence Shankland revealed Hearts’ team bonding methods from the recent training camp in Spain and admitted the squad enjoyed a ‘Susan Boyle moment’ together. Whilst preparations for Sunday’s Edinburgh derby against Hibs at Easter Road, the Tynecastle captain divulged details of the camaraderie which took place last week.

Head coach Derek McInnes took his squad to La Manga for warm-weather training hoping the five-day stay would bring players closer together ahead of Sunday’s visit to rivals Hibs. Shankland felt the trip had the desired effect. Singing, sports, cards and other activities took place during downtime as the Hearts squad relaxed away from the pressure of striving to win the Premiership title.

“Obviously there are groups of players that are more friendly than others throughout the time, especially when you're back home,” explained Shankland. “Over there, it was quite good that we had a communal area. We all spent a lot of time together with table tennis, boys were playing cards, there was loads to do. Chill at the pool with me if you wanted, because I've got a tan!

“There was plenty to do and it was good for us. Sometimes you don't get to spend a lot of time with certain players. If we stay in Edinburgh, some in Glasgow, especially the foreign lads coming in, maybe they've not spent a lot of time with us, so it was good for them as well. And I see them coming out with each other as well. Obviously they need to get the lingo and understand. I think quite a lot of Scottish people are quite sarcastic, so I think that's probably a hard bit for them to deal with.

“We did the wee initiations and stuff for them, singing their songs and that for all the new boys. All in all, they were quite good to be fair. To be honest, it was more of the foreign boys that were the heart and soul of the party that night. I'm calling it a party, it wasn't a party, it was after dinner. Big [Landry] Kabore was up dancing and Chezzy [Islam Chesnokov] was rapping and that, so it was certainly different. All these small things are just what helps bring them out of their shells. When the guys are laughing, it always helps.”

Shankland’s strike partner Claudio Braga didn’t sing the ‘Radio Ga-Ga’ tune Hearts fans have adapted for him. “Let's keep him out of the limelight for now. Tell him to sit down,” joked Shankland. The Scotland striker did reveal who had the best singing voice. “Magnusson was the surprise,” he said. “Big Tam's quite a peculiar guy, you don't really know what you're getting with him. When he stood up, there are some people you're kind of closing your eyes when they go to sing and he was one of them. He sang some country-western song, but it was really good to be honest. It was a pleasant surprise.”

It was the Susan Boyle type of surprise no-one expected. “Yeah, we were actually saying that after,” laughed Shankland. “It was like a Britain's Got Talent moment. You never really knew what was going to happen but they sang and they were quite good. That was great in terms of just small things like that for team bonding.

“We did obviously have training in the morning and early afternoon as normal like here. We trained properly. It was just after that we had a lot of free time in the afternoons to go and do what you wanted really and just chill out. A trip to the beach or whatever. You could have that free time there so in that part it was good. Obviously, when you leave training here you go home to your families and that's just the norm. So when you get the opportunity to do what you want really, for a lot of the boys it was quite good.”

Title talk was never too far away. Hearts are top of the Premiership with five games remaining and the time for avoiding the subject has long gone. “No, the boys spoke about it. We obviously spoke about it amongst ourselves. It's there and you'd be daft to deny it now. It's right in front of you and you know what's required to go and get the job done,” said Shankland. “We weren't overanalysing it.

“The messages I've had: 'If you lose that game and you win that game...' People try to look at scenarios of every fixture but that's the excitement there. Obviously with three teams being involved as well there's a lot of twists and turns that could happen. We obviously spoke about the excitement and the chance and the opportunity you've got to go and achieve something as a group and there's nothing wrong with that.”

The next few weeks could potentially be among the biggest of Shankland’s life. Five games to win the league with his club, then a World Cup with Scotland if he is, as expected, named in the squad. It may transpire as a career-defining time. “It could be aye, it could be. Obviously when you get so close to an achievement like this - it's something unheard of in my lifetime - there is an element of excitement around that.

“There will be nervousness, there'll be everything else that comes along with that. But it could be one of the greatest achievements any of the boys will have in their careers. It's going to be big, there's no denying that. What we've done through the season is win football games and a lot of them have been big games as they've been viewed, and we've managed to come through them with a good points return to get us in this position. We just need to keep it going. I think we've just viewed every fixture we've played and we've approached it the same. It's kind of worked for us up until now so I think it'd be wrong to change it at this point.”

Nine months of sweat and toil have brought Hearts to this point. They are five games against fellow top-six clubs away from winning the Scottish league. “Obviously when you get this close you've got to go and try and achieve that. It's not going to be easy,” admitted Shankland. “We know that it's going to be difficult, especially with how the split fixtures work. There could be a lot that you need to deal with in that.

“I think if we just have a level of calmness about us, we know we've done enough throughout the season to get us in this position, and our record against the teams that we're going to play now has been really good throughout the season. We can take confidence in that and just look to go and get as many points as we can.”

Easter Road is a hostile place to start as Shankland knows from experience. It is an atmosphere he always relishes in front of around 3,700 travelling Hearts fans. “Obviously you've got your lads' support there, surrounded by hatred, but that's the way you want the derbies to be. That's what it's all about,” he remarked. “There probably is a feeling of winning away from home, because you're behind enemy lines, as people say. So hopefully we've got that feeling.”

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