'Controls your life' - Lawrence Shankland opens up on tough times at Hearts

The 29-year-old Scotland striker scored 31 goals last season, played in every match of this summer's European Championships and won plaudits for an excellent 2023/24 campaign. This term, it is the complete opposite. Shankland - like Hearts - has dipped well beneath the levels expected, with the team bottom of the league and the forward goalless until the sixth minute of stoppage time against Ross County on Saturday.

Shankland missed a handful of very presentable chances before finally finding the net, heading home a Yan Dhanda corner. The late leveller put the brakes on an eight-game losing run, yet managerless Hearts are still to win a competitive game this season. Captain Shankland hopes that the draw against the Staggies can act as a foundation to build upon.

"First and foremost it was good to get a point back on the board," said Shankland. "The run we've been on has obviously been disappointing and difficult. Sometimes you just need to break that chain, and sometimes it just takes a draw.

"We should have won, we had chances to win the game and if we've have taken them, it could have been more comfortable. That probably sums up where we've been, but thankfully we managed to get one in the end and take the point."

Shankland was not the only Hearts player not to take his chances. Midfielder Cammy Devlin had three of his own in the first half, the most gilt-edged coming right at the start when his effort from close range was blocked on the line by Ryan Leak.

"I think as a collective we needed a goal to go in the net, and when we get a chance like we did in the first minute you're just waiting on it rippling the net," said Shankland. "Leak makes a block - I don't even know where he came from - and got his leg on it, and I'm thinking: 'How's he blocked that?'.

"But that seems to be the way when you're going through difficult times, that things like that seem to happen. Then personally, today was better in terms of opportunities - there were a few for me. I should have scored with the header in the first half, the one that hits the bar was unlucky and then the one at the end was a good chance.

"But the good thing is, you need to keep getting in there and eventually you get the goal. We wanted to win the game, but the run we've been on you've got to take the positives.

Shankland has gone on barren runs in the past, but with Hearts bottom of the Premiership and searching for a new head coach following the recent departure of Steven Naismith, this one cuts deeper.

"Obviously it's difficult," continued Shankland. "I'm a striker and that's what I'm judged on. Off the back of my last two seasons which were very successful, it can be difficult to manage because I have done so well. But you just need to keep plugging away and usually your luck changes, and hopefully I can go on a run from now.

"I think people tend to think footballers don't care about their job, but it controls your life. You're sitting there for a full week after a game where you don't get a result thinking about it and you just want the next game to come. But that's where we've been and hopefully today can give us that bit of positivity that can change that bit of luck."

Next up for Hearts is a trip to Azerbaijan to face Dinamo Minsk in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, before they face Aberdeen on Sunday on league duty at Pittodrie.