SCORE THE MERRIER

Shanks sees explosive firepower right the way through Hearts' ranks as a sure sign of big things to come

- BY DARREN JOHNSTONE

LAWRENCE SHANKLAND is happy he now finally has goal-scoring company in attack - but insists he never felt the 'burden' of carrying Hearts.

The Jambos skipper’s ability to find the net effectively determined Hearts’ success as a team in recent seasons.

He bagged 59 goals in his first two campaigns as Hearts qualified for Europe but as they dried up by his standards last term Hearts finished seventh.

But he is no longer the sole goal getter at Tynecastle following a summer signing spree from new boss Derek McInnes.

Claudio Braga, who already has six from nine games ahead of today’s trip to Rangers, and Alexandros Kyziridis are just two who have hit the ground running, while Pierre Landry Kabore and Sabah Kerjota are getting up to speed.

Shankland said: “It’s good because you always want competition at the top end of the pitch. We have brought in quality, everyone is chipping in with goals and assists.

“You need that, especially at a club like Hearts if you want to win games.

“It's been good for us, the goals have been shared out among the front players and that's what you want.

“I didn't see it as a burden before, that was just the position we were in.

“We maybe didn't have the quality in the final third to score goals across the board and it was a wee bit reliant on myself.

“Maybe you could call it a burden but I didn't see it like that, I just took it on and tried to score as many as I could.