Lawrence Shankland on Hearts Rangers regret and 2 Jambos glory days he witnessed

The captain of Hearts has been previewing this weekend’s Gers duel.

Lawrence Shankland wants to make up for the bitterness from Hearts’ previous Hampden encounter with Rangers.

Both this season in the Viaplay Cup semi-final and in the Scottish Cup final of 2022, the Jambos fell short of the Ibrox men, falling 2-0 in extra time. Shankland acknowledges that the squad regrets the lost chance and that he was only present for the latter.

The skipper, nevertheless, is adamant that they can use it as fuel to get better and advance to the championship round this time. The goal machine, however, is adamant that Rangers remains a very dangerous opponent and does not want to dwell too much on their recent bad play.

“We left Hampden with a little regret the last time,” he remarked. It was very disheartening to us that we didn’t feel like we truly put our mark on the game and that we were let aside.

However, we can take a lesson from that, so maybe this time we can put what we’ve been working on into practice.

“It’s evident that they’ve been going through a little sticky patch, but we anticipate difficulties. They will benefit from being away from league duties and playing in the Scottish Cup semi-final.

You risk being caught if you study their form too closely. The Rangers are undoubtedly a strong squad and have been for some time.

Naturally, there may be a slight dip in form, but this is only made worse by our league’s intense scrutiny and the pressure that the two top teams face.

We shouldn’t examine it too closely, in my opinion. Rangers will be analysed as we know them; nonetheless, we need be cautious because the last time we faced them at Ibrox, they gave us a rough time (5-0).

Hearts’ two previous cup victories were in 2006, when they defeated Gretna on penalties, and 2012, when they thrashed rivals Hibs 5-1.

Shankland has disclosed that he attended both; he was a Queen’s Park player for the derby final and a youth player at the club for the first one.

Speaking about his time as a young player for Queen’s Park, he said, “I was working at the 2012 final (against Hibernian) and handing out the programmes.” “And the previous one, which I attended as a child through the club and obtained tickets for, was against Gretna.

“I took a picture with Gretna owner Brooks Mileson outside the venue. Wonderful recollections, so maybe this year we may return and retrieve the cup.

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