Hearts 1 Dundee 0
One man doesn’t make a team. This man, though, is sure to make his significantly better at a time in the season when an uptick in performances will be necessary to turn all the magnificent work of the last seven months into something tangible and historic.
Lawrence Shankland’s arrival from the bench nine minutes into the second half of Hearts’ 1-0 win over Dundee on Saturday did more than just send a surge of electricity through the stands. It quite clearly electrified his team-mates on the field. And going by his effusive words over his 30-year-old captain after the final whistle, the same can be said for his manager Derek McInnes.
Things changed when Shankland ended his two-month absence through hamstring trouble and took the captain’s armband from Cammy Devlin, whose own return after injury offers another major fillip so close to the dogfight that will be those final five fixtures after next month’s 33-game split.
His presence alters the way the team play. The ball starts to stick up front. It feels like there is more scope for interplay in the final third. He can bring other guys into the game and offer and create new options in addition to bringing that special ability to put the ball in the back of the net.
It was goalless and nervy when he came onto the park. Yes, Shankland didn’t contribute to the winner – a fine Oisin McEntee header from a Marc Leonard free-kick with 13 minutes to play – but Hearts were more cohesive with him than without him.
Lawrence Shankland has a shot on goal during Saturday’s 1-0 win over Dundee
Shankland’s return from injury has boosted the league leaders for the title run-in
His 36-minute cameo alone engenders confidence that Hearts are going to be a different entity following the international break. That they are going to be more like the team that took it to the big guns earlier in the season rather than the one of late, slipping at Kilmarnock and making the grinding-out of 1-0 wins at home something of an art form.
No offence to Pierre Landry Kabore, but he’s had his chance and we’ve seen what he can do. He isn’t a patch on Shankland. He was fielded up front alongside Claudio Braga from the start in this one and did very little other than miss a golden opportunity – putting a fine chance high and wide when through one-on-one with keeper Jon McCracken in time added on at the end of the first half.
It was only a matter of time until he was replaced by Shankland with Hearts struggling for ideas. When their skipper, their talisman, got back on the park, new things seemed possible again.
Braga, a revelation this season, has done really well in taking on so much of the responsibility up front in Shankland’s absence. At times, he’s played alone. At others, he has had to try and build a relationship with Kabore. Having Shankland back beside him again should take some of the weight off.
Just five minutes after Shankland came on, there was a tantalising sign of their understanding, an indication of just how Hearts may become a different proposition again for opposing defences.
It was just one pass. Shankland picked the ball up on the right of the area and fed in Braga on the left, who cut inside at the wrong moment and ran into trouble. It was a chance, though. Fashioned by the quick thinking of the captain.
And when he comes back for the visit to Livingston in just under a fortnight, with more work on the training ground and in the gym under his belt, there will be more of that. More invention. More intelligence. More getting others into the action.
Pierre Landry Kabore struggled to make an impact and missed a good chance in the first half
What was maybe more enticing than anything for a home support that went through the wringer in this game – which ended with Hearts down to 10 men after Frankie Kent had picked up a second yellow for a foul that stopped Charlie Reilly on the counter – was the fact that Alexandros Kyziridis looked brighter and more involved with Shankland back alongside him.
The Greek has had a fine season, but common consensus is that he has tailed off a bit in recent times. There’s talk of opponents having worked him out, which seems a bit lazy and unfair. Like Braga, he has carried a lot of weight this term and would be no great surprise if he is feeling a little burnt-out.
He definitely looked livelier in those closing stages, though, with the forward line carrying better structure, with Shankland to look for and feed off. Six minutes from the end, he came in off the left and found the Scotland international, whose turn and shot from inside the area was held by McCracken.
It was another little flash of what Shankland brings to those around him, though. There is still a decision to be made over Kyziridis during the break – to give him a rest or just invite him play his way back into form. The lesser spotted Rogers Mato is there in reserve, of course, but there was enough on display on Saturday to suggest that just having Shankland alter the dynamics of the team might re-energise Kyziridis at a key time.
It certainly energised the manager. This is the Derek McInnes we all want to see. Bullish, enthusiastic, insisting his belief in his players is growing stronger and stronger. Telling everyone else in the league that the return of more key performers such as Stuart Findlay, Harry Milne, Craig Halkett and Tomas Magnusson after the international break is going to make the entire collective become stronger too.
Manager Derek McInnes has been bullish about Hearts’ title chances with seven games to go
When the 54-year-old was pushing Celtic for the title with Aberdeen 10 years ago, there was a feeling he didn’t exude enough belief. That he was too keen to try to play down expectations.
Not now. Not this close to the end of a campaign with Hearts still top of the league and still capable of turning Scottish football totally upside-down. And, tellingly, not when his talisman, his No 9, is back in the fray with the double incentive of an unlikely title and a place in Scotland’s World Cup squad to play for.
Hearts (4-4-2): Schwolow 7; McENTEE 8, Kent 6, Steinwender 7, McCart 6; Altena 6 (Spittal 54), Devlin 6 (Baningime 76), Leonard 6, Kyziridis 6 (Forrest 86); Braga 6 (Chesnokov 86), Kabore 5 (Shankland 54). Manager: Derek McInnes 7. Booked: Kent, Leonard. Sent-off: Kent.
Dundee (4-2-3-1): McCracken 6; Halliday 6, Astley 6, Graham 6, Wright 6; Robertson 7, Hamilton 7; Congreve 6 (Wright 71), Westley 6 (Cotterill 63), Yogane 6 (Reilly 63); Hay 6 (Murray 72). Manager: Steven Pressley 6. Booked: Congreve, Reilly. Referee: Don Robertson. Attendance: 18,827.
