How Hearts avoided 'doing a Kilmarnock' as Lawrence Shankland and Joe Wright suffer contrasting fortunes

Lawrence Shankland converts his penalty to make it 3-1 to Hearts and wrap up the win over Kilmarnock at Tynecastle Park. Picture: SNS

This 3-1 victory took the Jambos into fourth spot in the Premiership table, one point behind Aberdeen, but they made life nervier for themselves than it needed to be. Completely in control of first-half proceedings as their Ayrshire guests struggled to repel them, a dip in focus after the interval, gave Killie the belief and the space to come back at them.

Hearts’ Aussie contingent have returned to the fold after a memorable World Cup but Kye Rowles was a bystander, suspended following his red card before the break. While fellow defender Nat Atkinson had to be content with a place on the bench, midfielder Cammy Devlin was named in Hearts starting line-up.

But it was others who shone. Having Craig Halkett and Stephen Kingsley back together in the backline provided a solid foundation, while the mid-season lay-off has given the likes of Barrie McKay and Andy Halliday a much-needed rest and Robert Snodgrass several more weeks of fitness work to allow his body to work as hard as his mind.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson chose to tweak a few things and played top scorer Lawrence Shankland wide right of an attacking three, and asked Josh Ginnelly to spearhead. That paid off with some quality long passes played over the Killie defence for the speedy frontman to run onto.

After an opening period of probing in and around the visitors’ box without a telling end product, that testing upfield ball gave the home side the opener. In the 19th minute Wright was caught under a high ball and, instead of returning it, headed it high above him. As he tried to recover, Ginnelly capitalised, shaping his body perfectly to keep it low and fire it into the net.

It was a lead that the Gorgie side deserved and, at that stage, the only thing on their mind was increasing it. Ginnelly had another couple of openings – both of which looked simpler to convert that the one he netted – but he passed up both, as play raged almost all one way. Eventually a well-placed Snodgrass out-swinging freekick found Shankland and he headed it back across Sam Walker and into the Killie keeper’s net. It was his 13th goal of the season – 10th in the league – but he wasn’t done, which was just as well for the home side.

The second half was a different story as Kilmarnock’s greater sense of purpose elevated their performance, and Hearts’ more compliant display offered them space and reason to believe a comeback was possible. Ash Taylor pulled one back but it was the unfortunate Wright who had the more telling – and contentious – input.

As the guests pushed for a leveller, Hearts caught a break as a delivery dropped into the box, the Killie man challenged Shankland and the ball struck his arm. He appealed for a foul, insisting he was shoved which caused his arm to be in an unnatural position, but referee Willie Collum and VAR agreed it was a spot-kick and Shankland converted to ease the pressure.