Lawrence Shankland Hearts penalty teaser as boss Neil Critchley has his say on who will step up in Copenhagen
Neil Critchley believes Lawrence Shankland can overcome his Brugge penalty anguish if Hearts are granted a spot kick in Copenhagen tonight.
The Jamaican captain endured a terrible night in Belgium a fortnight ago, when he blasted over from 12 yards with the score 1-0 before Cercle Brugge won 2-0. That resulted in nasty scenes as disgruntled travelling fans turned on their skipper. Shankland, however, responded with a double in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Dundee, ending his 12-game goal drought.
And Critchley will have no trouble keeping his number one striker on penalty duties in tonight’s crucial Conference League clash – if Shankland pushes himself forward. He replied: “Yeah. Not an issue. He plays as a striker and enjoys scoring goals. Scoring two goals is undoubtedly a significant boost for him.
“So, if he goes forward and wants to face the penalty, that’s OK. I spoke with Shanks about it before the Dundee game. I haven’t spoken with him yet about this one, but I will. I’m not going to tell you what happened during the talk before Dundee since it would reveal who would take a penalty! So I don’t want to tell the opposition what could happen.”
Shankland stated after Saturday’s game that he would gladly move away from spot kick duty. However, Critchley noted, “That was the case before the game on Saturday. But he’s scored twice since then, so he might be different now.”
Copenhagen is the toughest challenge of Hearts’ six league phase matches. But Critchley, who is without Beni Baningime due to a knee injury but has Frankie Kent back, will not tolerate the term “free hit”.
And he has challenged his team to achieve a result that will seal a play-off spot and save their fate from dragging into the final matchday against Petrocub. The Tynecastle manager says he was disappointed that their last journey to face Cercle Brugge a fortnight ago yielded no results.
And, while Copenhagen is the Pot 1 team that advanced to the Champions League round of 16 last season after defeating Manchester United and drawing with Bayern Munich in the group stage, Critchley insists there are no intentions to park the bus at the majestic Parken Stadium.
He said, “Free hits, I dislike such terms. There is no such thing. We are ahead of Copenhagen in this competition, therefore they must win while we must gain something from the game. We missed a chance in Bruges. We didn’t do well enough that night.
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