Hearts boss Neil Critchley has launched a defence of Lawrence Shankland after he copped abuse from Hearts fans.
Against Cercle Brugge, the Jambos suffered another loss in a game where they were more than in it, matched their opposition and had chances to score but drew a blank.
Rinse and repeat from Rangers, Heidenheim and Celtic, essentially.
Lawrence Shankland continues to be shot of confidence and missed a penalty as well as further chances while Kenneth Vargas was wasteful also along with the likes of Alan Forrest.
There has to come a point where Hearts stop looking at games and saying ‘we played well’ and instead start to be concerned about where they’re headed with results.
Obviously they can address things in January but they have some big games coming before then.
Critchley reacts to Shankland abuse
Lawrence Shankland was the darling of the Hearts support for his first two seasons in maroon as he rattled in goal after goal.
And they’ve been patient with him so far this season as he has started to struggle.
Their patience is beginning to be tested though and tonight there were angry chants of ‘Shankland, get to f**k’ after his missed penalty.
The contract situation and the fact he appears to be happy to move on probably isn’t helping but abuse like that is harsh.
Manager Neil Critchley was quizzed on it post-match and pointed out the 29-year-old’s goals last season are what got Hearts into Europe in the first place.
He also insisted the rest of Hearts attacking players are just as guilty.
“I understand frustration, I get it,” said Critchley. “We’re desperately disappointed that we’ve not been able to give them a goal to celebrate or give them three points tonight.
“It’s just natural disappointment, we’re all disappointed. When you’re travelling in great numbers and you pay money and you come a long way, you have that feeling of wanting to have a good evening, as we all do. Unfortunately, that’s not happened.
“We wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for him, because he scored the goals that allowed us to be in this position and finish where we did last season. It’s a team game and it’s not just on Lawrence, it’s on the other players as well.
“Kenny [Vargas], Alan [Forrest], Yan [Dhanda], [Blair] Spittal, whoever that is, the forward players, [Liam] Boycie, James Wilson, Barrie McKay, they’ve all come on and had minutes. You’re looking for one of those players to score or create and we’ve not done that.”
Hearts could have gone on to win
The Jambos were pushing and pushing for a goal at that point and their hosts retreated as they began to tire.
Critchley feels they could easily have gone on to win the game if they found the equaliser.
Instead the missed spot kick was a turning point and Cercle ended up adding to their lead.
He added: “I do, yeah, because I think second half, when their energy died a little bit and we knew that, they’d leave us space on the pitch and we started to pass the ball better and control the game better.
“We started to open them up and get into some really good positions in the final third. I felt that was coming, even though they had a chance maybe on the break.
“They hit the bar but that was just after our penalty miss. I felt we were in the ascendancy and I felt if we scored at that moment – goals change games.
“They are the pivotal moments aren’t they? The big moments. We had 10 minutes to go, we get back to 1-1, it’s properly game on then, isn’t it?”