Hearts news latest as Lawrence Shankland in searingly honest standards confession while Forrest shares gnawing regret

Lawrence Shankland admits he hasn't been hitting his usual high standards this season.

The Hearts striker and stand-in skipper hasn;t found the net on Premiership duty since the opening day of the season away to St Johnstone. the majority of his goals in maroon have come in Europe Conference League qualifying and the last was an early penalty against PAOK Salonika back in August.

Last season's Tynecastle top scorer is going through a drought and that meant he was left out of the latest Scotland squad. Steve Clarke spoke to him prior to that, but now Shankland has the incentive of a place at Euro 2024 to rediscover his scoring touch.

"I need to look at myself and there are always things you can work on and improve on," he told Sky Sports. "My standards were high but this season has been a bit of a mixed bag

"Hopefully I can get back to that and I'm confident I will. I'm hoping I don't forget how to score now! I need to find more consistency and hopefully I’ll do that soon."

He (Clarke) gave me a call to let me know I wasn't going to be involved. Naisy (Steven Naismith) had spoke to him about a couple of things and decision was made that it better for me to remain here and work on different things.

"Hopefully that holds me an a better place to make the squad for the Euros. It's good to have a long term goal as well as a shorter term one here. To make those squads, you need to be at your best for your club and hopefully I can do that."

Meanwhile, Alan Forrest admits his Edinburgh derby screamer lost some of it's shine after Hibs' dramatic comeback. The winger fired into the top corner to give Hearts the lead at Tynwecatle before a Christian Doidge own goal doubled the advantage.

But two Elie Youan goals in 82 second half