Hearts dressing room message before Ross County revealed.

Lawrence Shankland was a doubt for Heart of Midlothian’s Premiership match against Dingwall on Saturday. The striker was still dealing with a hamstring injury sustained during the Scottish Cup defeat to Aberdeen.

On game day, he chose to take the risk. The risk paid off.

Shankland gave a captain’s performance. One of his most important performances came at a crucial moment for Hearts.

After the 3-1 win over Ross County, the player emphasised the importance of the dressing room prior to the game.

“You could feel the pressure throughout the week, obviously with everything that went on,” he told me. “It had a big game feel to it. You could feel it among the boys.

“The changing room was a little quiet before the game. I said, “I’m fine with everyone being quiet.” We just make sure we’re ready to perform. And to be honest, we were.

“You could tell we were on it from the beginning. I felt like we tried to do things correctly. We made every effort to complete the tasks at hand. The passing was sharp at times. We simply tried to take advantage of our opportunities to demonstrate some character in order to recover from what I believe was County’s initial shot. But we did it well. It was a positive response. Overall, I thought we did well.”

Hearts had a game plan in mind and worked on it all week with interim head coach Liam Fox. Shankland played through the middle, flanked by Alan Forrest and Kenneth Vargas. He scored twice and set up a third.

“I felt like it worked well up against County’s back three,” said the player. “We used the space on the sides, and they gave me room to operate in the middle. In a few moments in the first half, I just couldn’t get it under control in the runaway phase.

“But the ideas were there for us to work on, and eventually we got the first goal – the equaliser – and went on to show some character by coming back after a good finish for the boy Hale.

 

“It was probably their first shot in the game, I believe, so when you have that much control, you’re obviously thinking, ‘Here we go again.'” I thought we demonstrated good character by sticking with what we were doing. We got the equaliser, and we obviously won the second half, scoring two more goals.”

Shankland’s season has been notoriously frustrating. He will be the first to admit that he has not met the expectations of the previous two seasons.

With his brace and assists, he now has 12 league goals and assists this season.

 

Fox preferred him to play in a more prominent role, which he has frequently done, particularly in the second half of the season. According to Fox, getting Shankland close to the goal and positioning the team to support him can lead to him scoring.

His second goal involved crossing the defender and turning in Vargas’ cross.

“When I’ve got two pacey players either side of me, that does help me because they can get in and operate in their spaces and I don’t need to,” says Shankland.

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