Lawrence Shankland's impact "massive" as Hearts striker becomes the Premiership's joint-top scorer

Lawrence Shankland’s two goals against Kilmarnock moved the Hearts striker joint-top of the cinch Premiership scoring charts, with manager Robbie Neilson labelling him “massive”.

Shankland has now scored 14 times overall since joining the Edinburgh club from Belgian side Beerschot in the summer. He has three in European competition and 11 in the league, the same total as Rangers’ Antonio Colak and Aberdeen’s Bojan Miovski.

Josh Ginnelly scored Hearts’ first goal before Shankland’s header and penalty-kick completed a 3-1 victory over Kilmarnock. “It’s massive for us,” admitted Neilson. “Any team that’s got a guy who can be top goalscorer in the league is going to of benefit.

“Today we moved him a bit to the right hand side then up top and he can play those roles for us. He is a very clever player, it’s just really getting chances for him because Lawrence will score goals. It’s about us making sure we get enough bodies around about him in good areas.

“I was satisfied overall. I thought we played really well in the first half. Coming off the World Cup break, you’re never really sure what you’re going to get. We had some tough games in Swansea, Blackburn and Almeria so you never know what you will get coming into the game. I was pleased with the first half but in the second half I didn’t think we really got control. Kilmarnock came more into it but I was pleased to see it out.”

Ginnelly’s well-taken opener set the tone before Shankland’s header put Hearts 2-0 ahead at the interval. “It was a great finish,” said Neilson of Ginnelly’s effort. “We played him as a striker and he did it really well in the first half. I was pleased with him. It was a great finish and I thought we could have scored a few more today.

“Coming back to Tynecastle was important for us. It was the last game of the year and that really helped. Watching the Rangers-Hibs game and even Aberdeen-Celtic, I thought there was a wee bit of lethargy and that was always our worry coming into this. We looked good in the first half but we just didn’t carry it through.

“We did great in the first half. We got our wing-backs high and midfielders high, which was really pleasing. We could potentially have scored a few more but, in the second half, we need to carry that through again. Kilmarnock changed a couple of players and we a bit more aggressive with us. We didn’t handle it as well as we should so there are still a lot of things we need to tidy up.”

Lawrence Shankland is now the Premiership's joint-top goalscorer.

The victory propelled Hearts into fourth place in the Premiership as they sit just a point behind third-placed Aberdeen. They lost 1-0 to Celtic at Pittodrie earlier in the day. “It was important with Aberdeen losing against Celtic,” said Neilson. “It gave us an opportunity to get right behind them and hopefully we can get a result up at Tannadice next week and get closer again.”