'No shots of confidence' - Hearts far from celebrating late leveller as Lawrence Shankland mindset revealed

Hearts halted an eight-game losing run in the sixth minute of stoppage time when Lawrence Shankland headed home a Yan Dhanda corner. It cancelled out Ronan Hale’s first-half opener and while the Jambos remain winless in all ten competitive matches this season and bottom of the Premiership, arresting the slide gave Fox some reason for optimism.

“I’m not sitting here celebrating taking a point,” said Fox, who took over on a caretaker basis this week after Steven Naismith was axed last Sunday. “What pleased me is we kept going, we kept playing forward and kept going - that was the most important thing.

“On the run we’ve had, it would have been easy to go into their shells but Lawrence came up with the goods at the end. But we’re not celebrating a point, although we’re glad to get something.

“When you play here you know the demand and we’re asking players to take more risks. I felt we created some good chances. When you’re on the run we’ve been on the confidence is low and you can’t just flick a switch. You can’t just give someone a shot of confidence - I’d love to be able to flick a switch.

“I only have the job for a few weeks and today is hopefully a step. Hopefully the way we came back today can be the start of that. We are disappointed with a point and we had to go to the 96th minute, but we fought through it. There’s no easy fix for it. I felt the disappointment in the changing room but we have to move forward now.”

Shankland looked booked for another frustrating afternoon in front of goal, missing two good chances before he finally found the net late on. It was the Scotland striker’s first goal of the season and the relief etched across his face was there for all to see. Fox praised the 29-year-old for not letting his head drop throughout his barren run.

“Nobody doubts Lawrence’s ability,” continued Fox. “He’s been on a difficult run but good strikers keep going and he got his reward for that. Ask any striker, they love scoring goals and if they don’t they can get down on themselves. I’ve not felt that from him this week. He kept going and got his rewards at the end.”