Lawrence Shankland admits he was left frustrated by a lack of minutes for Scotland at this summer’s European Championships – but the Heart of Midlothian centre-forward is keen to move on from the national team’s underwhelming displays in Germany.

Steve Clarke’s side drew one and lost two of their three group-stage fixtures, and only scored twice: Antonio Rudiger’s own goal in the hosts’ 5-1 win on the opening night, and Scott McTominay’s deflected effort against Switzerland.

Shankland, who finished the previous campaign as the Scottish Premiership’s top scorer and player of the year, had to make do with a place on the bench as Che Adams was chosen to lead the line in attack. Hearts’ talismanic No.9 was brought on as a substitute in all three games, but only played for 43 minutes in total.

Lawrence Shankland was subbed on in the 76th minute against HungaryLawrence Shankland was subbed on in the 76th minute against Hungary (Image: SNS)

Naturally, the striker would have enjoyed more game time in Germany – but he accepts that competition for places at international is rife.

“Of course [I would have liked more minutes], as would everybody who was starting on the bench for the games,” Shankland said. “That's the nature of football. I have always said no matter what role you are asked to play for the national team, you go and you do it.

“It is a squad game and especially at national level, when you are asked to go away and represent your country, it is always a proud moment, no matter how much time you get on the pitch. Of course, everyone has frustrations and everyone wants to play more minutes and start games but as a collective, we have always grouped together and been good team-mates and everybody has played their part.

“I feel that has been a strength of the squad throughout. No matter what part people have been asked to play, they have done it the best they can and that’s what it's all about. Unfortunately, you want those who come on to come up with that bit of magic or make that wee bit of difference to help us but it wasn't for the lack of trying. Everybody did the best they could and we just fell short.

“I think overall the feeling will be disappointment, obviously. We wanted to go there and progress from the group stage, first and foremost, and we fell short of that so there is overall disappointment. It will take a wee while for us to come away from it and reassess everything. By the time September comes around I'm sure there will be a few conversations to be had about what we feel we could improve on.

“It is still pretty raw, and it was difficult when we still had the rest of the tournament to watch, but the analysis will be done and I'm sure we will talk about it when we get together.

“When you get the experience of the games and the feeling of coming out, even for the warm-ups with the crowd behind you, it’s incredible. Small moments like that you can take away from it and those memories will last a lifetime. But there was disappointment with the results and it was difficult to watch the rest of the games.”

With the domestic season gearing up in earnest and a Nations League campaign with Scotland to look forward to, Shankland has little time for moping. The inevitable post-tournament post-mortem will take place when the national team next assemble in September, but the 28-year-old remains convinced that better times lie ahead under Clarke’s watchful eye.

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“Of course we were all disappointed but in football you learn to move on pretty fast,” Shankland added. “The games move on that quickly that I don’t think you have time to dwell on it. We have another challenge coming up, in the Nations League, and we want to go into those games and do well. Then, going forward, we have the World Cup qualifiers so there is always something else on the horizon that we can aim for.

“So, while it would be silly not to address it and have a chat about it, and where we think we went wrong, so we can learn from our mistakes going forward, but there is a lot ahead of us that we can go and achieve and I think that has to be the mindset.

“[Clarke] has got us to the two major tournaments and it wasn’t so long ago that we hadn’t been to one in I don't know how many years. So, there is the credit you get from that in the bank. Moving forward, we will look at what went wrong at the Euros but we still have a lot to look forward to. There is still a lot to go and achieve as a group and that's what we want to do.”