Newcastle United loanee Garang Kuol says he doesn't look at his Hearts spell as a failure after scoring an injury time equaliser at Rangers. The Australian international grabbed his first goal in the 94th minute to ensure a share of the spoils with his first goal in Scottish football.
Kuol, who joined the Magpies in January this season, has struggled since making the loan move north of the border. The 18-year-old featured in seven of his first eight games but failed to find the back of the net and was left on the bench in seven of his last eight and left out of the squad against Celtic.
Hearts took the lead against Rangers through Lawrence Shankland inside the opening minute, with Todd Cantwell equalising on the brink of half-time and Fashion Sakala putting the Gers ahead immediately after the restart.
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Steven Naismith, current interim manager of the Jam Tarts, introduced Kuol off the bench in the final seven minutes of the game, with the desired effect. The young Australian shows great desire to power into the box from the right-hand side, latching onto a poor clearance from Ryan Jack and stabbing the ball beyond Allan McGregor.
The goal survived a VAR check and Kuol notched a vital point for his side. At full-time, the Australian dismissed his loan spell as being a negative.
He told the BBC: “People look at the game time as a negative, and obviously it’s not ideal. At the end of the day, what I’m doing in training every day is what makes me a better player. A lot of people look past that, look at the game time and they make it a whole negative story.
“I’m very happy that I came here, I’ve met some wonderful people, the coaches, and hopefully I can just keep developing. [The goal] just shows perseverance and the hard work I did behind the scenes on the training pitch every day.
“I just thought, ‘finally’. Obviously it’s been a tough period and just to get that goal was like a sigh of relief.”
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