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Timing is a crucial part of any striker’s game. Lawrence Shankland generally manages to co-ordinate effectively as the Hearts captain, underlined by key contributions in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Celtic. It was his 150th appearance for the Edinburgh club and fitting that he marked the occasion with a goal, an assist and an exhausting overall performance. Shankland is now in his fourth season at Tynecastle Park, the first two of which were goal-laden. He claimed 28 and then 31 with some legendary net-bulging - but then managed only nine strikes last term. He already has eight this year, which coincidentally is the points advantage Hearts hold at the top of the William Hill Premiership after beating the champions. Following a protracted contract saga during the summer, everything is coming together for Shankland. “It feels positive,” he said of his 150th game. “A lot of good wins in there, a lot of good moments, a good few goals as well. It's always proud. It's probably the longest I've ever been at a club and to get that wee landmark, it's a nice feeling. It's always nice to get a win and get a goal, that always helps, it's a nice feeling. I think it's another three points towards where we wanted to go at the start of the season. We want to get as many wins as we can on the board as quickly as possible and we know how to do that, so it's a good start. “We want to win every game at the minute. At the start of the season, for the first third of the season, we want to take as many points as possible. Wednesday is a chance to go to St Mirren and get another three and that's a really good return for that start. Nothing changes, the objective is the same. We want to put as many points on the board as we can. Right now we're in a good position and we're doing that well. It's so early in the season, every game you get into it's important and you've got to go and try to win it. Obviously, the boys deserve to enjoy Sunday, it was a good result and a good day. We recover and we go again.” The time taken to agree new contract was longer than expected during pre-season. Shankland didn’t envisage signing up for a full-on tilt at the Premiership title. Neither he nor his team-mates would publicly admit that’s what this is becoming, but the league table doesn’t lie, after all. The Scotland striker did acknowledge that reason he stayed at Hearts was not because he saw this coming. “Not really, no. I just based the decision on what I wanted and what was best for me and my family,” he said. “Obviously, I knew the football club and what it's like to work here and play here. I imagined it couldn't have got much worse than last year [finishing seventh]. It was a difficult season so I had an idea. The manager [Derek McInnes] I'd worked with before when I was younger [at Aberdeen] and it was another opportunity to work with him again and be in a totally different position as a player and in my career. “That's been good. There are a lot of factors but I don't think anybody had foreseen this good a start. It's always difficult to win the amount of games that we've won. It's a good moment at the minute and you need to enjoy that but you just need to keep getting results.” The next task in that respect is St Mirren in Paisley. They are the only team this season to beat Hearts following August’s Premier Sports Cup win on penalties. “It's a difficult place to go,” said Shankland. “St Mirren are a good team, especially at home. They're obviously pretty successful there. I would guess they get most of their wins in the season at home. “They've got good players. They're a big, physical team as well. They've got good height about them and they're a threat. Teams often brand them as a long ball team and say they don't play a lot of football, but they've got good players in there. It's another different task and a difficult task. We need to get in there and take the confidence we've got from all these wins and try to get another one on the board.” The longer Hearts remain top of the league, the bigger a target they become. Shankland is aware he and his team-mates are making themselves something of a scalp for opponents. “I'd rather that be the issue than looking behind you and thinking: 'We need to get away from the bottom here.’ That's what it was for a long spell last year, so I'm quite enjoying this,” smiled the skipper. “Being the club that Hearts is, especially when teams come to Tynecastle, their game is lifted. Obviously Celtic are a wee bit different. It's always the Old Firm and we need to lift our game [against them]. When you play against Celtic, with the quality they've shown over the last however many years and consistently winning, it's always a difficult tie. It was just about getting three points and we've managed to do that.” Shankland’s penalty which put Hearts 3-1 ahead took a bit of practice on the Riccarton training pitches. He didn’t watch Celtic goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel beforehand. Instead, he used a dummy. “It was a mannequin. I did miss two,” he conceded. “I'd hit three good ones and missed two so I had to go again, but that's what it's like. I just practise until I feel good or I get a couple of good ones back-to-back and I just say: 'That'll do me.' “I'm not too precise with what I do but I did hit a few good ones and I'd made my mind up on Saturday. The last one I hit, I scored the rebound at Ibrox but I was kind of pondering the idea of where I was going to go [with the ball]. When I practised before Sunday, I had my mind made up and that worked, so I'll probably do that going forward.” The narrative around Shankland for long enough from some opposition supporters was that he didn’t work hard enough and scored mainly penalties. McInnes highlighted the fact his captain regularly covers more ground during a match than any other Hearts player. He is often tagged as a ruthless finisher - which cannot be argued - but there is more to his game. “It's just how I play my game and it [running stats] have probably been quite consistent throughout the time I've been here. People will probably struggle to believe that but it's true, just because of the way I carry myself. I always pride myself on working hard throughout my career. I always do my shift along with my team-mates to try and win games. “I'm not annoyed being tagged a finisher but I can see what they're coming from. When you score as many goals as I have, it's kind of hard to get away from that tag but I do believe there's a lot more to my game. I do work hard for the team and I think the amount of games I've managed to play in the four seasons I've been here probably shows that I've got a role to play in all the teams that I've played in.” He is enjoying his role in this one alongside captivating new signings like Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis. “In time, me and Braga have got better and started to play as more of a partnership. It's been good the last few weeks because Kyzi is obviously playing really well off the left as well. He's chipped in with a few goals as well. As a team, if we're going to be successful and win games, the more people who are scoring the better. Everybody's been chipping in, even defenders from corners have been a threat. Long may that continue so that people keep scoring.” Braga is understanding the fact that McInnes wants one striker to stay high and the other to drop deep to help midfielders at times. “I think probably Braga has had to adapt a wee bit more, just in terms of getting off the shoulder of people,” said Shankland. “He always likes to come to feet and show he's good at that as well. I think, in terms of the way he feels playing together, if I'm coming to link the game, he's sharp as well and he's quick. A lot of them are to play on the shoulder. They're a bit more suited than me so that's been a wee bit of a difference. But listen, we can switch it up. Sunday was a wee bit of a different job. We had to take care of the defensive duties as well. We did that part pretty well for the team, especially Braga. “We've done what we worked on but we just never quite got it in the first half. To be fair, Celtic caused us a wee bit of an issue with the positioning of their players. We just had to be a wee bit braver at times and free up Kyziridis to jump to the centre-back. But the game changed in a way when we got the two quick goals close together [after half-time]. We probably just adapted and were a solid base in a shape when we shifted like that. Celtic had a lot of possession after that, but I think we were comfortable out of possession in a way and tried to control the game that way. We managed to see it out.” READ MORE: Predicted Hearts team to face St Mirren with possible changes READ MORE: Inside Hearts - key talks and Derek McInnes’ mindset
