Having felt as though his career was going nowhere as he struggled to make an impact at Greenock Morton, fought his way back to captain Hearts, become the top marksman in Scotland and represented his country, it is going to take more than a missed chance to keep Lawrence Shankland down.

That’s not to say the striker – who prides himself on his clinical finishing – isn’t still smarting a little from the gilt-edged opportunity he blew while wearing the dark blue of his nation against The Netherlands a couple of weeks back in Amsterdam.

For many commentators, that felt not only like a missed chance on the night, but a missed opportunity for Shankland to really stake his claim to be Steve Clarke’s main man up top heading into the European Championships this summer.

READ MORE: Should Shankland start for Scotland in Germany?

In the typically irrepressible style of all the best strikers though, Shankland is steadfast in his belief that another chance will come his way. And if he maintains the form he has shown this season, that will undoubtedly be the case.

The rise of Shankland from that career crossroads at Cappielow back in the summer of 2017 to where he is now is a credit to his ability and his application from that point on, and those are the qualities that will now help him pick himself up from his miss at the Johan Cruyff Arena and, he hopes, book his ticket for Germany.

“When I look back to Morton that was probably the lowest point of my career, I wasn’t enjoying my football at all, I wasn’t playing well, and it was a difficult time for me,” Shankland said.

“But the best thing is how much I learned from then and that I managed to kick on.

“Back in those days, if you’d told me I’d hit the bar in Amsterdam playing for Scotland I’d have taken that all day!

“I don’t look too much into it. You probably wish for the rest of your career that that goal goes in, but that’s the same with every shot I take. I’ll move on.

“Listen, it was a good opportunity for me to score, but it’s not the first chance I have missed and it won’t be the last! That’s the life of a striker. I did everything right, it was just a wee bit higher than I wanted it to go. But I wouldn’t change what I did. I would still go for the same finish.

“Aye, it was disappointing it didn’t go in, but it’s one of those things. I am sure I will miss more but I will definitely keep putting myself in a position to miss them.”

The ease at which Shankland shrugs off that miss - and its potential impact on his Euros hopes - comes from a confidence that he has already exhibited what he can do throughout the course of the last two seasons in particular, and he will be concentrating on continuing in a similar vein over these closing weeks of the campaign for Hearts.

"You can't overthink it,” he said.

“You'd kill yourself with your thoughts! That's the worst thing you can do.

"Listen, it was a great chance, I’m not going to deny that, but it didn't go in and that's life, so you move on.

“I've done what I've done all season and it's got me in the squad and got me game time. So, I don't see the need to change it.

"I will just look to keep doing well for Hearts and if I do that, I give myself a good chance of being involved.”

What Shankland’s big moment has rather masked, rather like the late rush of goals from The Netherlands did with the Scottish performance overall, is that he actually played very well on the night. No mean feat, when you consider he was up against arguably the world’s best defender in the form of Virgil van Dijk.

And he hopes his display showed Clarke and the rest of the country that he is no one-trick pony, and that the often thankless task of leading the Scotland line is one that is well within his capabilities.

"I think that's why I was playing, to see if I could do the job I needed to do for the team,” he said.

READ MORE: Scotland manager defends Hearts striker despite Netherlands miss

“I hadn't really had that opportunity before, and it was a chance for me to show I can do it. I thought I did my shift really well. There were positives for me.

"It was obviously a big test for me, the highest level I have played at in terms of the calibre of defender.

"It was good to go in there and test myself. And overall, I thought my performance was decent. You know when you've played well and when you've not, and I came off the pitch thinking if that goal went in, it would probably have been the perfect night for me in terms of performance.

"So, there were plenty of positives for me to take from it.”

*Lawrence Shankland was celebrating the launch of this year’s McDonald’s Fun Football programme, available to all children aged 5-11 across Scotland. Sign up now for your nearest FREE session at mcdonalds.co.uk/football.