Distraught Lawrence Shankland sat in Hearts dressing room in silence and wouldn't speak to anyone after Brugge penalty blunder

Craig Gordon took one look at crestfallen Lawrence Shankland on Thursday and knew there was nothing he could do or say to lift his team-mate.

Not in that moment. The 41-year-old knows from experience it is best to wait for the right time. When it comes, from one Jambos captain to another, the keeper will assure the struggling striker that as sure as night follows day, the goals will start to flow again. Shankland sat in silence in the Jan Breydel Stadium’s away dressing room after the defeat to Cercle Brugge. He had shut down after the latest body blow on a bruising season.

A campaign that has seen last season’s Premiership top scorer bulge the net just once in 20 games hit a new low when he blazed a penalty over in the 2-0 Conference League defeat. Gutted fans packed in behind the goal Shankland had just cleared turned their ire on the 29-year-old.

The abuse that rained down from the away end after that fluffed penalty and again when the players went to applaud them at full-time was beyond brutal. Shankland admitted last week this looks likely to be his last season at Tynecastle and supporters took the opportunity to tell the skipper to go now in far more colourful language of course.

But Gordon is adamant the hitman’s team-mates still love him, even if sections of the support do not. And nobody, he insists, is hurting more at Hearts ’ predicament right now than Shankland as Aberdeen loom.

The keeper emerged from the dressing room and said: “Lawrence never spoke to anybody. He’s pretty distraught, to be honest. He’s our top player. Is there anything I can say to him? Yeah. Whether you’re a captain or not and you are going through something like that, it’s a lonely place at times. You just don’t feel that anything