Lawrence Shankland in Hearts fortune telling as striker reveals Alan Forrest read RFS win in the stars

If Lawrence Shankland had listened to room-mate Alan Forrest’s pre- match prediction, he’d have known it would be all right on the night in Riga.

The Hearts striker revealed his team-mate had called it spot on with his fortune telling ahead of their Europa Conference League 2-0 win over Rigas FS and had needlessly worried about missing a sitter. An evening of high anxiety in the Latvian capital was settled by Shankland’s nerveless penalty and a late Forrest strike.

And the Scotland cap admitted it had all been foretold by the winger. Shankland said: “My wee room-mate, he kind of called it before the game. He said ‘the two of us are going to notch’ on the way out the door. I said, ‘I hope so’ ... and it proved to be right. It’s a great three points for us. We knew it was going to be a tough game going over there. It was a good away performance.

“They’re a decent team as well and came off the back of a good result last week against Fiorentina.

“We had to soak up pressure at times but overall we were good. I managed to score the penalty and wee Al got his goal at the end, so I was delighted for him.”

Hearts may have had to ride their luck at times against a side whose host of chances were repelled by the superb Craig Gordon, lifting the club into second spot in Group A behind Istanbul Basaksehir.

There was an attacking vigour about the Jambos, which proved the difference, and Shankland revealed he was at panic stations during the closing moments after missing a glaring first-half chance.

He said: “Every time the ball went into our box at the end, you’re thinking, ‘Please don’t score’. You are big enough and ugly enough, I’ve missed more than that throughout my career and will miss more. I need to see it back but I