Driven Hearts hitman Lawrence Shankland gives Scotland Euros verdict and addresses Steve Clarke future poser

It took Lawrence Shankland less than a minute to continue where he had left off with Hearts.

In his first appearance for the Jambos this pre-season, Shankland was introduced at the start of the second half in Hearts' pre-season friendly against Tottenham Hotspur at Tynecastle. Within 60 seconds he clinically despatched the equaliser for the Jambos. Spurs did go on to win 5-1, but it was a reminder of just how lucid the 28-year-old is in front of goal.

Shankland scored 31 goals in all competitions for Hearts last season as they strode away to third place in the Premiership. His form earned him strong links with a January transfer, an improved contract offer from the Gorgie hierarchy and a place in Scotland's squad for the European Championships. His participation at the Euros resulted in his delayed return to pre-season.

Some would have liked to see Shankland participate more in Germany. Deployed exclusively as a substitute, he played less than 45 minutes in Scotland's three Group A matches against the hosts, Switzerland and Hungary. The Scots meekly exited the tournament with a solitary point and were widely derided for their unambitious style of football.

Shankland is one of the first players from the squad to be quizzed on Scotland's campaign. It was the polar opposite of his season at Hearts, laced with despondency. Steve Clarke's men had been tipped by some to become the first team to progress past the group stages. It was not to be.

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"I think overall the feeling will be disappointment, obviously," said Shankland on the Euro 2024 campaign. "We wanted to go there and progress from the group stage, first and foremost, and we fell short of that so there is overall disappointment. It will take a wee while for us to come away from it and reassess everything.

"By the time September comes around I'm sure there will be a few conversations to be had about what we feel we could improve on. It is still pretty raw, and it was difficult when we still had the rest of the tournament to watch, but the analysis will be done and I'm sure we will talk about it when we get together.

"When you get the experience of the games and the feeling of coming out even for the warm-ups with the crowd behind you, it’s incredible. Small moments like that you can take away from it and those memories will last a lifetime. But there was disappointment with the results and it was difficult to watch the rest of the games."

Shankland swiftly went away on holiday after Scotland's exit – "it was chilled, and a wee bit less chilled at times, but it was all good and I’m ready to go again," he said of his time off. No doubt he would have cast his mind back to the Euros. He went into the event as Scotland's most prolific striker and many debated whether he ought to have started in attack, either ahead of Che Adams or alongside him. Shankland is pragmatic on his number of minutes.

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"Of course, as would everybody who was starting on the bench for the games," he replied about wanting more game-time. "That's the nature of football. I have always said no matter what role you are asked to play for the national team, you go and you do it.

"I feel that has been a strength of the squad throughout. No matter what part people have been asked to play, they have done it the best they can and that’s what it's all about. Unfortunately, you want those who come on to come up with that bit of magic or make that wee bit of difference to help us but it wasn't for the lack of trying. Everybody did the best they could and we just fell short."

Some critics have trained their sights on head coach Steve Clarke for perceived negative tactics. He has been in charge of the national team since 2019 and his next assignment is the autumn Nations League campaign against Poland, Portugal and Croatia. Shankland believes the manager's recent record of qualifying for tournaments leaves him with "credit in the bank".

Shankland continued: "He has got us to the two major tournaments and it wasn't so long ago that we hadn’t been to one in I don't know how many years. So, there is the credit you get from that in the bank. Moving forward, we will look at what went wrong at the Euros but we still have a lot to look forward to. There is still a lot to go and achieve as a group and that's what we want to do.

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"The games move on that quickly that I don’t think you have time to dwell on it. We have another challenge coming up, in the Nations League, and we want to go into those games and do well. Then, going forward, we have the World Cup qualifiers so there is always something else on the horizon that we can aim for.

"So, while it would be silly not to address it and have a chat about it, and where we think we went wrong, so we can learn from our mistakes going forward, but there is a lot ahead of us that we can go and achieve and I think that has to be the mindset."

In the immediate term, focus switches to club matters. Shankland wants to maintain his high goalscoring rate. "I’ve had two good seasons now and my numbers have been really high but I want to improve on that and keep getting stronger," he admitted. "That is what I will look to do. Obviously, I have set myself a helluva standard over the last couple of seasons and some times that could hinder you but I think it’s good for me and, going forward, I can look forward to that challenge.

"We have an opportunity with the European games this year so that gives me the chance to get more European goals and hopefully that will be the case. My tally was good in the league in the last couple of years so if I can keep that number up there and improve on the number of European goals, I’ll be happy."