Lawrence Shankland is convinced Hearts are ready to turn their stuttering season around and hopes he’s staked a hat-trick claim to be key in the revival.
The striker’s treble against Celtic was in vain as Robbie Neilson’s team winless run extended to six games. Hearts now aim to end that dismal sequence in on Thursday by beating Latvians RFS - who warmed up for the Europa Conference League clash with a 4-0 win over Super Nova on Saturday - and Shankland believes fortunes are about to change.
He said: “The quality of the squad doesn’t concern me because I know the players in it. Obviously, we have been a bit disjointed at times with injuries and things that you can’t really control. We are working hard to try and make our performances better and the Celtic game showed that we can do that. We can take confidence from that. Everyone is trying their best and we are all sure that we can turn things and get better results.”
Neilson’s team went toe-to-toe with the league leaders, but weak defending would ultimately prove to be their downfall. Shankland said: “When you score three goals against Celtic, you don’t want to put all that work in and get nothing.
It wasn’t an overall bad performance. They scored two goals by following in and tapping it into an empty net, and that can be avoided. It’s those moments that we need to improve on if we are going to be at that level.”
Shankland is hoping he gets the nod from the start against the Latvians after having to settle for a place on the bench on Saturday, but says he knows that Neilson’s decision to leave him out of the starting line-up was based on a game plan. He said: “The gaffer spoke with me on Friday and explained what he was going to do and I accepted that quickly. I knew that I could have a part to play and I was ready.
“Thankfully I could make an impact. That’s all you can do.”
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