Lawrence Shankland says Hearts' ever-growing injury list and European football exploits is 'not an excuse' for their recent run of results.
Robbie Neilson's men headed to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen off the back of a 5-1 Europa Conference League drubbing by Fiorentina looking to bounce back and get a win under their belts but they once again left empty handed with the hosts running out 2-0 winners.
Key players like Craig Halkett, Kye Rowles, Liam Boyce, Beni Baningime, Nat Akinson and Michael Smith all missed the trip north for the capital club while they suffered further injury issues with Andy Halliday and Peter Haring having to come off. The latest defeat leaves Hearts sitting seventh in the Premiership table and three points behind Edinburgh rivals Hibs in third spot, having played one game less.
READ MORE: Andrew McKinlay sends passionate Hearts fan message after outstanding support at Fiorentina
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Champions Celtic make the trip to Tynecastle this weekend as Hearts bid to turn their fortunes around and upset Ange Postecoglou's side. Shankland has stressed the big absentee list is not an excuse and says the Jambos have enough in their squad to get results on the board.
The Scotland international said: “It’s only October, it’s hardly a disaster but things aren’t going the way we want them to just now.
“You can always turn things around, that’s just the way football is. We need to get over this, get it out of the way and move onto Celtic next week and make sure we are ready to go.
“It’s mad, I think there are 11 first team members out now, which obviously doesn’t help. But we can’t use it as an excuse.
“There is enough out there to go and win football matches and the ones who are fit need to dig in and do what we can to win. The week will give us a week of normal training, there is no travel involved.
“We travelled to Italy and then straight on to here, which is difficult for a squad that hasn’t done it before. There’s a lot of adaptation to be done but that’s not an excuse.
“If we had gone out and converted our chances we’d probably have won that game. We need to be at it all the time. To be fair, I don’t think we were miles off it at Aberdeen, we started the game really well and as the game went on maybe the guys who played the other night started to tire.
“Aberdeen were fresher finishing the game and that’s where they got the two goals. We just need to get back in there and get ready for Celtic.”
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- Fiorentina 5 Hearts 1 as Jambos taught Euro lesson, more injury worries - 3 things we learned
- Michael Smith in candid Hearts form assessment as he admits club being let down by recent results
- Hearts handed UEFA fines as two incidents on Europa Conference League duty lead to punishment
