Hearts' Lawrence Shankland looks at positives from draw

Interim manager Liam Fox made it clear that the point wasn’t good enough but there were positives to take, not least that last season’s top goalscorer is finally off the mark.

Failing to take early chances before falling behind to Ronan Hale’s superb strike meant that Hearts were once again chasing the game in the second half.

But their caretaker boss was pleased with how his side continued to fight until the end, equalising in the final minute of added time.

It came seconds after Shankland peeled himself off the turf, wondering how he’d spurned a one-v-one.

Earlier in the game, the Hearts skipper was unfortunate to see a shot come back off the bar and headed a decent first-half chance wide.

You must be relieved to get your first goal?

“First and foremost, it was good to get a point back on the board. The run we’ve been on has been disappointing, it’s been difficult.

“Sometimes you need to just break that chain and sometimes it takes a draw.

“We should have won, we had chances. I had a couple. Cammy [Devlin]. We had chances to win the game. If we take them we’d obviously be more comfortable, but the way we’ve been, that probably sums it up.

“Thankfully enough we managed to take one in the end and get the point.”

Clarify what happened for the goal “I got a header on it. I didn’t really see it going in. I was probably still thinking about the chance two seconds before it, to be honest. Thankfully enough it bounced it.”

You hit bar, missed the late chance, did you think luck was up?

“It just broke to me pretty quickly. I tried to slide it past him, but he’s come off his line pretty fast and got a leg to it.

“I obviously knew it was late on in the game and that was a big chance. I probably was still thinking about that, to be honest. Thankfully enough I’ve managed to get my head on the next one.”

On a run like that, do you need anything to go in?

“Yeah. I think as a collective as well we needed a goal to go in the net.

“You get a chance like we did in the first minute, you’re just waiting on that rippling the net.

“The boy gets a block… I don’t even know where he comes from. He gets his leg on it.

“I’m thinking, ‘How’s he blocked that?’

“That’s just the trend. It seems to be the way when you’re going through difficult times. Things like that seem to happen.

“Personally, today was better in terms of opportunities. There were a few there for me. I should have scored with the header in the first half.

“The one that hits the bar is quite unlucky, to be honest. And the one at the end is a good chance, but the good thing was: you need to keep getting in there and getting chances and then eventually you get the goal.

“But, of course, we wanted to win the game. But I think, with the run we’ve been on, we need to take the positives from the point.”

How difficult is it when you’re not scoring?

“Obviously it’s difficult. You’re a striker, that’s solely what I’m judged on. Obviously off the back of my last two seasons, which were obviously very successful.

“It can be difficult to manage it as well because you have done so well.

“You need failure to get success, in a way.

“But you just keep plugging away and usually your luck changes, and something like that can change it. Hopefully I can go on a run now.”

Is it impossible not to overthink in after games?

"It's impossible not to. Everybody will be the same, especially with the run of results we've been on. I think people tend to think that football players don't care about their job.

"It controls your life, you know what I mean? You are sitting there for a full week thinking about it after every game when you aren't getting a result.

"You just want the next game to be there. That's been where we are. Hopefully Saturday is just that wee bit of positivity that can change that and swing the luck.”

Are you looking forward to Thursday?

"It's good, it's a nice break from the league and a different competition to have a go at. Sometimes it can be different games, they are enjoyable and hopefully we can get a few good positive results throughout the league stage.”

Can it help you that it is behind closed doors?

"It could, aye. It will be a throwback to 2020, unfortunately. It will be even-steven for everybody. I don't think anybody enjoys playing in front of an empty stadium but if we can go there and get a result then I'm sure we will leave the place happy.”

Can you take inspiration from other Scottish teams doing well in Europe this season?

"Of course. It's a competition and we feel the draw has not been too bad to us if you look at it from the outside. Hopefully we can pick up a few positive results and enjoy that experience because we earned it last year and we deserve to go and enjoy the competition. When we get back to league business, hopefully we can pick up where we left off.”

What did you think of Adam Forrester's debut?

"He did well. It's not easy coming into the team just now. The atmosphere around Tynecastle is obviously very hostile from the early minutes. For a young boy to come in there and take the ball as much as he did and try to make things happen was good. I'm really pleased for him, he deserves it and all the boys are delighted for him.”