Lawrence Shankland spoke to the Official Hearts Programme for Saturday's match, as he reflected on hitting a major maroon milestone of 50 goals for Heart of Midlothian...
There’s no stopping Lawrence Shankland at the moment. The current cinch Premiership top scorer is a man in fine form, he spoke with Jamie McIntosh about his Hearts career so far, the Scottish Cup and the Jambos’ recent form.
Hearts fans will be running out of superlatives to describe their number nine, who recently bagged his 50th goal in maroon, in the victory over St Johnstone.
Yes, it’s fair to say Lawrence Shankland has been quite the revelation in a Hearts shirt, so much so, that if he’s on form, he’s practically unplayable when you look at the sides he’s scored against.
Let’s rewind to the 20th July 2022 when Lawrence Shankland joined Heart of Midlothian on a three-year-deal from Belgian side Beerschot.
Photos of a young Shankland, wearing a classic Hearts top from the early 00’s got the ball rolling and suddenly, Jambos everywhere were fully onboard with the striker’s arrival, sensing that this could turn into something special.
Having had spells with Aberdeen, St Mirren and Dundee United previously, opposition fans were quick to jump on the signing and put a question mark over the frontman’s reliability to score goals in the top-flight of Scottish football. Which went well.
The first Hearts forward to hit 20 goals in a league campaign since John Robertson in the 1991/92 season and with 17 league goals to his name this season, he’s well on track to do so again.
Following that spell in Belgium, where he was once deployed as a wing back, there was perhaps a little bit of the unknown about what Shankland was going to turn up in Gorgie, but strikers will always back themselves to score goals, wherever they go.
Shankland is no different. However, he admits that he didn’t expect to rack up his half century in such quick time.
“I probably didn’t expect it to come so quickly, no. I don’t think many people would’ve put me down for that many goals so early on, but that is maybe down to the fact nobody at Hearts had scored 20 goals in a season for so long.
“When I did that, it was seen as quite a big achievement, but for me, I didn’t really see it that way. It is of course an achievement, but it was something I identified as being doable the moment I arrived.
“It was the first team in Scotland that I had played for where I was going to be on the front foot for quite a lot of the games and I thought it would suit me. That was a big factor in me coming to Hearts and thankfully that’s paid off.”
You can pick up a copy of the programme around the ground on Saturday for £3.50, or buy a copy online from our friends at Curtis Sport.
Click HERE to pick up a copy
