Liam Boyce explains Hearts goal celebration and why Lawrence Shankland was initially wary of claiming it

How the credit for Hearts’ winning goal against St Johnstone was changed from Northern Ireland to Scotland international

Liam Boyce celebrates with Lawrence Shankland after Hearts' winning goal against St Johnstone. (Photo by Roddy Scott / SNS Group)

If Lawrence Shankland has proved himself a full-fledged card-carrying member of the strikers’ union, Liam Boyce is in danger of having his membership queried, if not immediately revoked.

It was the Northern Irishman who was initially credited with scoring the winning goal against St Johnstone before it was noted that the ball deflected off his Scottish strike-mate on its way into Dimitar Mitov’s net.

Normally that would have prompted a tug-of-war between two such prolific scorers, with each staking a claim. But by the time Boyce fronted up to the media in a post-match press conference, the matter had apparently already been settled.

“I was saying to Shanks that he scores enough so he could have given me it. But it’s just the way it is. As long as it goes into the net and we win. These are tough games. Teams come here and it’s difficult to break them down. We saw that with Livingston when Kenny [Vargas] came on and scored at the end. It was always going to take something like that to get a goal and settle us down. I’m just happy it went in.

“I knew that it had hit him, I was just running away celebrating, trying to do the Alan Shearer and see if I could get the goal for myself. But, I knew right away it had hit him.”

Shankland also started to peel away before taking a more subdued approach, possibly worried that he had been offside and hoping that if that was the case, his limited jubilation would convince the officials that it was the onside Boyce who had broken the deadlock. But he wasn’t offside and that meant there was no way he wasn’t going to at least try to commandeer it. So instead of counting as Boyce’s second goal of the season, the crucial goal was Shankland’s sixth in his last six appearances for Hearts.

“I was sort of thinking it could be offside,” admitted Boyce, explaining the slight wariness in the team celebrations until the ref allayed the niggling fears. “But thankfully he wasn’t.

“When I shot, I looked up and I saw it hitting Shanks and I was sure I saw someone [behind him]. But with VAR lines these days it can be your shoulder that’s offside. So it was a bit nervy but thankfully it was a goal.”

The only goal in a game where Hearts again had to be patient, the win kept them in fourth spot and bagged them a third successive league win for the first time since January 2022.

“When you play for a big club, the fans want to see goals, goals, goals, every time you go forward. But football doesn’t work like that. Teams come and are good at defending and it’s hard to break them down. You have to keep doing the right things and believe it’s eventually going to pay off. We don’t want to pass it backwards but that’s what you need to do sometimes.

“We know we are a good team and [putting together a winning run] is the sort of thing we should be doing regularly. We need to build on it now and be consistent. I don’t know the last time we won four in a row but hopefully it’s next week.”