Lawrence Shankland comments on hostile Hearts fans, what didn't help and what needs to happen

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Tynecastle captain has his say after European exit

Picking through the debris of another Scottish football European catastrophe, Lawrence Shankland offered some candid comments on Thursday night’s events at Tynecastle Park. The Hearts captain didn’t shirk responsibility for the 2-2 draw with Moldovan club Petrocub which eliminated his club from the UEFA Conference League, and acknowledged that fans had a right to be angry.

Hearts’ current position at the bottom of the Premiership is not helping the general mood among supporters. They turned on the Tynecastle board during the Petrocub match, with players and staff also targeted for some stinging criticism at full-time. Shankland is fully aware of the situation but felt Thursday’s atmosphere was unusual.

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“It’s a sore one obviously. The objective was to win the game and get through and we’ve not managed to do that, so it’s disappointing,” he said. “I don’t think we had plenty of chances. We got into good areas, then getting the final chances is the bit where we are letting ourselves down and that’s been the story of late this season.

“We’re missing that final bit of quality to create that chance. We’re probably counting half-chances as chances just now. I don’t remember the goalie making a good save apart from dealing with crosses. That’s what we need to work on - making the goalkeeper work and keeping him busy. It’s a missed opportunity, without doubt. Qualification was there for us after the start we had, but it wasn’t to be.”

Home supporters became hostile towards the team early on in midweek. “From five minutes in - it doesn’t help,” added the striker. “I was actually looking forward to the game, I thought they’d be right behind us from the off but it was a kind of weird atmosphere. Listen, the fans are really good and I’m happy to give them credit when they are good. I just felt like they were waiting on one mistake to turn on us and all in all it didn’t help the way the game went. I’m certainly not blaming the support for what happened on the pitch. I’m just saying it didn’t help.

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“Usually, on European nights they are brilliant. They can cheer you over the line. But as I said there was a weird atmosphere and I know the league form isn’t helping with things. We are looking to improve that. It was a difficult night all round. We need to get up and get on with it now. We really need to start winning matches in the league. That’s all we have to concentrate on now. We need to win our games.”

As skipper, Shankland carries more on-field responsibility than others but the entire team felt the effects of Thursday’s result. “I wouldn’t say it’s harder for me than it is for anyone else. All the boys are feeling it,” he said. “Obviously there’s that bit of responsibility to try and keep people’s heads up. At times on Thursday, I thought we showed good character to keep trying to do what we were trying to do. But every time the ball went backwards there was boos.

“It’s not easy to take the ball and do that when you are wanting to make the right decisions. It’s difficult for boys out there but I thought they stood up to the challenge pretty well. We kept going, we got ourselves back in the game, got ahead but it’s a really disappointing penalty that we lose.”

Shankland won’t use his status to ask fans to get behind the team as he understands their exasperation. “I’m not asking the fans to do anything. They can turn up and do whatever they want, they pay their money for tickets and expect us to win games. I totally understand that. Right now we are not doing that so I understand the criticism. But the comment was that it was very early on against Petrocub that it got hostile.

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“It’s difficult times. When you are out there and it gets that hostile, it’s going to be hard for boys. But they are going to have to dig in and accept it. They know what they are getting into when they sign for the club. They know it can be like that and we need to stand up to it and be ready for St Johnstone.”

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