Lawrence Shankland dreaming of cup glory with Hearts

EDINBURGH: Lawrence Shankland is allowing himself to dream of adorning his already distinguished Hearts career with Scottish Cup glory as he targets semi-final revenge on Rangers this Sunday.

In less than two seasons at Tynecastle, the 28-year-old Scotland forward has firmly established himself as a hero in the eyes of supporters by notching 56 goals for the Jambos.

But Shankland knows captaining Hearts to their first silverware in 12 years would elevate his status at the club even further.“It would be amazing,” he said. “You’re allowed to dream when you’re at this stage.

“The semi-final, one step away from a final, it’s obviously something you’re looking at. But you need to concentrate on the task at hand first and if you can get by that, you can continue to dream.

“All trophies help the status of not just me but the full team. You go down as a team that gets remembered if you can get your hands on a trophy so the boys will have that in their heads and that’s what we’ll look to do.

“It’s a great opportunity for us, it’s one we are all looking forward to and we need to go into it with a real positive outlook.”Shankland was at Hampden for each of Hearts’ previous two Scottish Cup triumphs in 2006 and 2012.

While Hearts go into the semi-final buoyed by back-to-back wins over St Mirren and Livingston, Rangers have won only two of their last eight matches in all competitions and have been heavily criticised as their title bid has unravelled in recent weeks.