They could hear the alarm bells clattering from three and a half miles away at lunchtime on Saturday. Because when skipper Lawrence Shankland failed to make the short journey from Tynecastle to Ainslie Park for Hearts’ Scottish Cup tie with near neighbours Spartans, a sense of deep suspicion stretched the length of Gorgie Road.
Of course, it’s not always necessary to be overly cynical where such matters are concerned. But, experience dictates, it’s often the wisest policy.
If Shankland had an upset tummy or a dose of the sniffles then, how could he reasonably have been expected to put himself in the line of duty?
And yet the absolute truth of the matter is the player himself will have known exactly how his absence was likely to go down in terms of perception alone.