Hearts Impress With Top Three Finish
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A fine season for Heart of Midlothian may have ended without a trophy, but a top three finish in the Scottish Premiership and runs to two cup semi-finals meant there was plenty of reason to cheer for fans.
The Macklin Motors-backed side headed into the 2023/24 campaign looking to better the fourth place finish of the previous season which, whilst a good result on paper, had come after a dramatic loss of form that ultimately cost Robbie Neilson his job.
Steven Naismith had taken over in interim charge for the latter part of the season and was appointed to the role on a full-time basis ahead of the new campaign, albeit initially with the job title of technical director to satisfy UEFA coaching requirements in the Europa Conference League.
The season got underway with a routine win against St Johnstone in the league before the European programme kicked off with a trip to Norway to face Rosenborg, who snared a 2-1 win to take the advantage in the play-off tie.
Having picked up a point at home to Kilmarnock, Hearts were in trouble with Izak Thorvaldsson put Rosenborg ahead early on in the second lag of the European tie, but after Lawrance Shankland equalised on the night, Cammy Devlin scored twice to take his side through – with the winner coming deep into stoppage time.
Progressing to the third round of the League Cup after beating Partick Thistle, Hearts then crashed to four successive defeats – losing to both Dundee and Motherwell in the league and being knocked out of Europe by Greek side PAOK.
The run of defeats was halted against Aberdeen whilst Kilmarnock were dispatched in the League Cup but by the end of October and with ten league games played, Hearts were down in seventh spot, having lost to Rangers thanks to a two goals scored in stoppage time.
The manner of that defeat however seemed to spur on Hearts as they embarked on a four-game winning run in the league, although Rangers ended the League Cup challenge at the semi-final stage at Hampden Park.
Losses to both Rangers and Aberdeen at the start of December left Hearts sitting fifth in the standings heading into a trip to Celtic – where goals from Shankland and Stephen Kingsley secured a first win away from home against the champions in 14 years.
With Shankland hitting a particularly rich vein of form in front of goal, Hearts became the team to beat in the SPL, winning nine of the next ten games to climb up into third spot and rocket clear of the pack behind – with a 2-0 win against Motherwell thanks to goals from Shankland and Kenneth Vargas putting the Jambos 14 points ahead of Kilmarnock.
Spartans and Airdrieonians were also dispatched in the Scottish Cup before the winning run was brought to a close with a heavy loss at Ibrox against Rangers.
Hearts put the disappointment of that result behind them, beating Celtic for the second game in a row a week later and by mid-April, had confirmed European football after a 4-2 comeback win against Livingston at Tynecastle.
Rangers would once again end the run in the Scottish Cup with victory in the semi-finals but Hearts duly wrapped up third in the standings to ensure a place in the Europa League play-off round for the 2024/25 season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly after a season that saw him break the 30 goal mark, Shankland was named as the winner of the Players' Player of the Year award – making him the first Hearts player to be selected for the accolade.
Shankland also won the Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year to give Hearts the award for the second time in three seasons after Craig Gordon won for the third time in 2022.