Lawrence Shankland has issued a strong Hearts apology after defeat at Aberdeen.
Robbie Neilson and his troops found themselves three goals down before the half hour mark with the game effectively over with over an hour to play. Dons star man Duk fired a double while Mattie Pollock also got in on the scoring act as Barry Robson continues to impress in the dugout with the Reds right back in the mixer for third spot. The capital club are now just four points clear while Hibs are one point further back in fifth.
Following the full-time whistle the travelling support voiced their opinions with the Hearts skipper admitting it is totally acceptable for them to do so and that he understands the anger they displayed after letting down the large numbers in attendance. James Hill reportedly argued back at full-time with the striker unware of the incident at the time.
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He told Edinburgh Evening News: “I didn’t actually see that. In all honesty, I don’t know what anybody could have said back to them. Abuse is obviously going to come your way because of that performance.
"It’s totally acceptable for the fans to do that. If somebody thought they were good enough out there and could argue back, then my God.
“I understand it [fans’ anger] totally. I apologise on the team’s behalf for the performance we put it. In the second half we had a bit of a go but the game was done. The fans travelled up in numbers and we’ve let them down.
“There isn’t much to say. I find it hard to believe if somebody doesn’t know how hard a game it’s going to be up there. The record Hearts have there tells you that. We won comfortably against Aberdeen at Tynecastle but it’s a completely different game at Pittodrie. If people thought it would be the same game, they’ve got a lot of thinking to do.
“A couple of weeks ago we lost to Motherwell and it was the exact same mistakes we made, so we haven’t learned. People need to look at themselves individually. It’s a man’s game. You need to look at yourself and stand up if you’ve done things wrong. If you aren’t realising you’ve done things wrong then you will come out of the team, potentially.
“I’m sure we will have a few tough talks this week. The bigger picture is: It’s only one game we’ve lost again. We need to get back to work on Tuesday and deal with it then.”
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