Lawrence Shankland admitted Heart of Midlothian team-mate Jorge Grant is a "nicer guy" than he is as he revealed it was the midfielder's idea to give the club's top scorer a chance to get on the scoresheet against Livingston.

Grant has taken over as the penalty take at Tynecastle Park after Shankland missed three in a row. He was the one who scored from 12 yards when the pair were on the park in the win over Celtic in March.

Grant had scored from open play on Saturday, netting the team's first in the come-from-behind 4-2 win over Livi. It was assisted by Shankland, one of two assists the striker got in the game.

When Hearts got a penalty at the end of the first half, Grant offered his captain the ball.

READ MORE: How Lawrence Shankland is now the all-round striker - and case for POTY award

Shankland explained: "He came over and said: ‘Do you want your goal?’ He’s a nicer guy than me because I wouldn’t have done that!

"It was good he was confident I would put it away. It was out of the blue, I was quite prepared for him to hit it."

It begs the question of who will take the penalty if the team were awarded a spot kick on Sunday in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers.

"I'm not saying," Shankland delivered with a smirk.

When pressed further he added: "We’ll see, someone else might hit it this weekend. Kingsley, maybe! It’s a secret."