“Just a win. We need to pull a win from somewhere."

Lawrence Shankland was asked what it is going to take for Heart of Midlothian to get out of the malaise they are currently in having delivered the worst eight-game spell to start a season in the club's history.

The latest setback, a 2-0 loss at Celtic Park.

It's at that point where three points any which way are required as supporter disgruntlement continues to grow the longer the team go without delivering some sort of success on the pitch.

The performance against Celtic wasn't all that different from the one in Czechia against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League play-off tie last month. Competitive, battling but not enough goal threat and ultimately defeat.

Hearts now head to St Mirren on Saturday in search of a win. Any kind of win. One that would likely be of the ugly variety.

“I thought we defended well, we didn't create much in the forward areas," he said. "But when you're defending the way you are, it's sometimes difficult to get players up the pitch into attacking areas.

“When Celtic get you pinned in like they do, the game becomes difficult and I felt that at times it was only me and Kenneth [Vargas] that tried to get a hold of the ball and try and break up the pitch.

“From set plays we looked quite dangerous, and had a couple of half chances, but we just couldn’t break them down.

"We're just going to need to grind a win out from somewhere.

"There'll be no better place to go and do it than next week at St Mirren. I don't imagine it'll be an amazing game of football, but I think you can go and dig in there and get a result, then hopefully that turns everything.

“If we get a win, people's confidence will obviously lift. It's been tough for the new boys coming in as well. Hearts are a big enough club at the best of times, but when it's not going too well it can be difficult, so I feel for them a wee bit.

“Hopefully we can get a win soon and kick on from it.”

Shankland did admit that "it is difficult when you're going through these times" to see such a win coming. Even more so considering the team's struggles in front of goal with just two from eight games.

Yet, he believes the team are good enough to get over this run.

“I don't think it's ever been a question of our commitment," he said. "It's obviously a bad run, I'm not denying that. At times we've not been playing very well and it's frustrating.

"The players are frustrated and we want to win games of football. We don't turn up to get beat every week. It's a bad spell, we all know that. Bad spells always do usually come to an end. We just have to grind through it and hope that the win comes soon.

“No disrespect to anyone in the league, but I think we've got a good enough team to win games in this league.

"The goals are an issue, not just for me, for everybody. We're not scoring goals as a team, which is never a good problem to have. That needs to change though if we're going to win games. We're aware of everything that's wrong. There's nothing that can't really be fixed.”

Shankland also provided his view on the penalty decisions that played a defining role in the direction of the match.

Colin Steven awarded Hearts a first-half penalty due to a handball by Liam Scales only to consult the monitor and overturn the decision following a VAR intervention. In the second half, Steven awarded Celtic a penalty for a handball by James Penrice after a VAR intervention when he had originally allowed play to continue.

“His hand was out from his body, for their penalty, his hand was out from his body for ours, it was too close," the Hearts striker said.

“I need to accept that, but I think if theirs would have been given, it would have been harsh as well. But it is what it is, they’ve made their decision and that's it.

“I don't think you'll ever get clarity on it. Every situation, you can't say that's the exact same as that. I don't think you'll ever have a situation where their handball is the exact same as yours. It's the referee's decision and you need to accept it, it is what it is.

“He’s had a chance to look at both of them. The guy’s looked at a screen like everybody else and he’s judged it to be a penalty. So, it is what it is, there's nothing you can do. The refs make the decisions and if they're wrong, or Willie Collum, says that they're wrong, then he'll deal with it himself as he’s told us.”