Lawrence Shankland admitted he was on the edge of his seat on the Heart of Midlothian bench as he watched Gerald Taylor's storming debut in a maroon top.

The Costa Rican right-back impressed in the friendly loss to Tottenham Hotspur and on another day could have walked away with two assists after setting up Kyosuke Tagawa twice in the first half.

Shankland, who came on for the second-half and scored, was asked about the club's recruitment over the summer with James Penrice, Yan Dhanda and Blair Spittal joining from Scottish clubs and the thought of being on the end of Taylor's crossing ability.

"Good," he said of the transfer business so far. "I hadn't seen the likes of Gerald in games until Wednesday night and he was very impressive. I don't think he could have asked for a better 45 minutes.

"There were a couple of crosses where I was on the edge of my seat sitting on the bench so it was a good debut for him. 

"Obviously, with Yan [Dhanda] and [Blair] Spittal, we know what they have done in the league and they have been good signings for us. They have been here a wee bit longer and seem to have come in and settled in so I look forward to them being part of the squad."

He added: "When you play against teams and you do your pre-match analysis there are always key players and strengths to each team and obviously these three boys have been noticed because of what they had been doing at their other clubs so I’m delighted to have them."

As things currently stand, Shankland will be lining up for Hearts for a third season. He followed up a 28-goal first season with a 31-goal campaign last.

Can he better it?

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"I’ve had two good seasons now and my numbers have been really high but I want to improve on that and keep getting stronger," he said. "That is what I will look to do.

"Obviously, I have set myself a helluva standard over the last couple of seasons and sometimes that could hinder you but I think it’s good for me and, going forward, I can look forward to that challenge.

"We have an opportunity with the European games this year so that gives me the chance to get more European goals and hopefully that will be the case. My tally was good in the league in the last couple of years so if I can keep that number up there and improve on the number of European goals, I’ll be happy."