For Lawrence Shankland on Saturday, it must have felt like nature was healing.
After a long goal drought, the Hearts striker was back among the goals as be banged in just his second and third of the season to down Dundee.
He will hope it now brings to and a frustrating period for him personally as he couldn’t find the goals to help lift the team away from the bottom of the table.
The nadir of it all was a bruising night away to Cercle Brugge where Hearts lost 2-0 in the Conference League, conceding a late second shortly after the 29-year-old had fired a penalty over the bar.
It summed up the way it had been going for the once reliable Shankland, who is out of contract.
Shankland’s Hearts relief
Most people who watched Lawrence Shankland’s goal laden first two seasons at Tynecastle would have expected his luck to change.
It did just that on Saturday as he looped a header over Jon McCracken in trademark style before scoring a second ten minutes later.
He admits the overriding feeling is relief.
Shankland explained: “In recent weeks, I’ve been confident the goals have been coming, but I’ve still not managed to get them in the net.
“It was nice to see the ball finally land in the goal again. It was a good header for the first one.
“The second one just falls to me in the middle of the box, so it feels like none of them have fallen like that up until now. It’s strange, I can’t really put a finger on it, but it happens in football. I’m just delighted to be back scoring.
“Of course, there’s always that bit of relief there when you’ve been on a dry spell for a while. Obviously I want to score goals, I always say that.
“I don’t enjoy not scoring, but you need to look at the bigger picture at times when you’re having moments like that. I’m delighted to get on the scoresheet.”
Shankland reflects on Hearts fan abuse in Brugge
That tough night in Brugge was one of the lowest points of the number nine’s career.
But he has now revealed he works with a mindset coach, John Johnstone, who was able to help him through.
“It was obviously a tough night,” he admitted. “It’s football and probably the lowest night I’ve had in a good few years. I felt sorry for myself for a couple of hours and the next day I was ready to go again. The games are coming thick and fast and you need to get over those moments.
“I work mentally with a guy called John Johnstone. I’ve worked with him for years and there have been moments like I’ve gone through recently where you work with him to get through the tougher times.
“Football is pretty easy when things have gone well and everything just seems to fall into rhythm, but when you come across moments like that you need to dig into what you’ve learnt over the years, back yourself and be confident in the return.
“That’s what I’ve had to do. There have been some difficult games out there and you’ll get stick, which is obviously part of football, but you just need to grind through it. Days like Saturday come around again and you get yourself back on the scoresheet and all of a sudden everything looks that bit better.”
Shankland was the subject of some chanting from the away support but insists it was the result and missed penalty getting him down, and not the stick from fans.
He added: “I don’t think I got overly caught up in it. I imagine there was a good amount of beer drank out there as well at that time. They’re stronger than here as well!
“Obviously I heard it and it’s not ideal, but there’s been times where they’ve been really good to me here as well. It’s not something I’m worried about.
“It wasn’t the abuse, that didn’t bother me. It was more just missing the pen and the way the game went for the boys. It wasn’t anything to do with the crowd or that. I was just gutted with how the result went.
“It was obviously a chance to get back in the game. It’s more that feeling, you feel like you’ve let your team-mates down a bit.
“The run I’d been on previously doesn’t help that, because you’ve not really got much to back it up, to say: ‘Well I did that last week.’ That was the biggest thing, it was me and my team-mates, it wasn’t so much the outside stuff.”