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Lawrence Shankland addresses Hearts nightmare form as 'frustrated' stars need to pull win from nowhere

Hearts' Lawrence Shankland
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Lawrence Shankland admits Hearts' stars are frustrated that things have not gone their way so far this season.

The Jambos captain is yet to find the net for the club so far with his side languishing at the bottom of the Premiership table with just one point from their first five outings. It's a far cry from the form that saw them win plaudits and points last term as they finished third and comfortably so.

And Shankland insists it has been difficult for the squad to accept their nightmare performances and lack of cutting edge as he looked at where it has gone wrong.

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“A win, just a win. We need to pull a win from somewhere,” said Shankland. “It’s difficult to see it coming when you’re going through these times. Hopefully we can keep doing what we’re doing, put a performance on and get one win under our belts. Then we can build from there.

“I don’t think it’s ever been a question over commitment. It’s obviously a bad run, there’s no denying that. At times we haven’t been playing very well and it’s frustrating. The players are frustrated. We want to win games of football, we don’t turn up to get beat every week. It’s a bad spell and we all know that, but bad spells usually always come to an end. We just have to grind through it and hope that the win comes soon.”

Celtic beat the Gorgie outfit 2-0 on Saturday afternoon and the striker acknowledged it was a tough day. But he felt they could have done more.

“We are on a bad run and another defeat doesn’t make it any better,” Shankland told the Evening News. “We knew it was going to be difficult to get a result but we need to move on. I thought we defended well. We didn’t overly create much but, when you are defending the way we are, it’s sometimes difficult to get players up the pitch into attacking areas.

“Celtic get you pinned in and the game becomes difficult. It was me and Kenneth [Vargas] trying to get hold of the ball and break up the pitch. From set-plays, we looked quite dangerous, had a couple of half-chances but couldn’t convert any.”

The game might have turned out different had penalty decisions gone Hearts' way when Liam Scales was initially penalised only for VAR to overturn the call. James Penrice DID give away a spot-kick to the Hoops in the second-half and Shankland spoke on the differences.

“For their penalty, his hand was out from his body. For ours, it was too close,” is what he was told. “I need to accept that but if their one had been given [against them], it would have been as harsh as our one [against us]. They went with their decision and that’s it.

“You can go in to the referee but he comes and looks at a telly, which should be his decision. It shouldn’t be who talks to him. There’s a decision to be made and if VAR have said they think he needs to review it, then he reviews it. That’s his decision and that’s fair enough. I don’t think it’s what anybody says on the pitch, it’s what he sees in front of him. It shouldn’t make a difference.”