Shankland savours Hearts positivity and crowd energy

Hearts skipper Lawrence Shankland is embracing the feel-good factor at Tynecastle and reminding his team-mates to relish their position at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The Edinburgh side remain unbeaten in 11 league outings and have established a nine-point lead over champions Celtic, who have a game in hand.

Advertisement

"You need to enjoy these moments," said the 30-year-old striker. "I don't think anybody can really anticipate starts like we've had.

"The positivity around the squad and around the club at the moment is really good.

"In football you become accustomed to not getting too high and not getting too low. You need to find that middle ground and I think I've been all right at that throughout my career.

"It's just about keeping that level-headedness about everybody and staying humble and knowing that around the corner there's always a bump in the road."

Advertisement

Hearts have taken 16 points from six home games in the league, with Tynecastle packed out each time.

"It's always nice when the crowd are turning up in numbers to support us," said Shankland.

"I still feel we can get more from them and get that energy from the stands on the pitch. Especially for the bigger games, you can feed off it and it galvanises the boys.

"You can feel it when you're playing. It can really push you on in difficult moments and help us get results."

Hearts have hit a healthy 28 league goals, while Shankland leads the way with 10 in all competitions.

Advertisement

"It always helps when a lot of people are getting on the score sheet," he said. "That's something we've probably lacked over my time here.

"[Alexandros] Kyziridis and [Claudio] Braga have hit the ground running and then [Pierre Landry] Kabore comes in at the weekend and gets himself a double.

"You need goals coming from everywhere. We've had a lot of substitutes make a difference in games and we need that going forward."

Click here to read article