The key Hearts attacking difference in Ross County draw

In the end, there was the familiar feeling of disappointment as Hearts failed to win for the 10th time at the start of the season, the first time a Hearts side have not won any of their first 10 fixtures in the club's history.

But there was a difference. The team created enough chances to win a couple of games. That has not been the case this season.

The 20 shots, seven on target and expected goals figure of 2.42 were the highest figures recorded in the league this season.

Cammy Devlin had a couple of great opportunities, denied a certain goal by an incredible block. On another day Lawrence Shankland would have had a hat-trick.

The Hearts captain said: “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.”

Still, it will be difficult for fans to look at the positives too much, even if they did end the long run of defeats. Hearts sit bottom of the league.

The hope is the manner of the point can act as a jumping off point.

"It's impossible not to," Shankland said of overthinking it after games. "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.”

For Shankland personally, the stoppage-time goal is his first of the season. A long wait for a player who has scored 58 goals in the past two seasons.

“Obviously it’s difficult," he said. "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.”

As for his goal, he cleared it up for those who weren't sure how it ended up in the back of the net.

“I got a header on it," he said. "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 in.”

Hearts can now turn their attention to Europe when they take on Dinamo Minsk in the first match of the league phase of the Conference League.

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

"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."