Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland admits he spent most of the second half against Riga FS worrying that an uncharacteristic miss in front of goal would have costly repercussions.
Minutes after giving Robbie Neilson’s side the lead from the penalty spot in the 43rd minute of their Europa Conference League group clash in the Latvian capital, the Scotland cap wasted a great chance to make it two.
Shankland got his body shape wrong in not being able to convert a relatively simple tap in from a Josh Ginnelly pass at the back post.
It was a moment that preyed on his mind until Alan Forrest settled a hard-fought victory with an injury-time effort.
“I need to see it back, I think I’ve taken a step towards thinking he (Ginnelly) was just going to cushion it and then he passed it and I’ve had to change direction,” said the 27-year-old.
“And I don’t think I sorted my feet out enough to get proper contact.
“Of course you are worrying for rest of the game, ‘please don’t come back to bite us’.
“Every time the ball goes into the box, you are thinking, ‘please don’t score’.
“You are big enough and ugly enough, I’ve missed more than that throughout my career and miss more.
“To be honest it’s better to miss chances than not get any at all.
"We created quite a few and wee Al got his goal and finished it off for us.”
The Hearts nerves were settled when Forrest climbed off the bench to net at the end to cap a ruthless counter-attack.
“My wee room mate, he kind of called it before the game,” explained Shankland.
“He said ‘the two of us are going to notch’ on the way out the door. I said, ‘I hope so’ and it proved to be right.”
Shankland was ruthless from 12 yards, lifting his spot kick high into the corner. He now has two goals in European competition this season after also converting a penalty in the Europa League play-off first leg loss to FC Zurich.
“People will say ‘it’s penalties he’s scoring’ but you need to put them away and that’s my job as the penalty taker.” added Shankland.
“It was another good one so hopefully we can keep winning.”
Hearts turn their attention back to Premiership football tomorrow in a trip to Motherwell.
This win will lift their spirits following an underwhelming run of only one victory from seven outings prior to the success over Riga
The three points extracted from the Skonto stadium has also left Hearts second in Group A ahead of the double header against Fiorentina.
“It put us in a good position in the table,” added Shankland.
“Fiorentina are coming to us and hopefully the atmosphere at Tynecastle will be good and we can go and get a good result and go out there and see what happens.
“It’s a great three points for us, we knew it was going to be a tough game going there.
“I thought it was a good away performance and they’re a decent team as well and came off the back of a good result last week against Fiorentina.
“It’s been thick and fast with the games but that’s what we’re here for. It’s great to be playing in competitions like this, it’s good for us and we’re enjoying it.”
