Nathaniel Atkinson hitting heights with Heart of Midlothian in Scotland

The 23-year-old Launceston-born defender scored a stunning late equaliser to earn his Heart of Midlothian side a 2-2 draw in the Scottish Premier League at Kilmarnock on Sunday.

The strike was well received in the Scottish media and Atkinson hopes to build on his latest headlines when Hearts head to Italian giants Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League.

Completing a comeback from 2-0 down, Atkinson's strike from just outside the box was his first in nine appearances for the campaign having managed one in 27 last season after signing a three-and-a-half-year deal on Christmas Eve, 2021.

The Scotsman newspaper reported: "With [a] second remaining of time added on, the ball dropped for Nathaniel Atkinson and the right-back sent an unstoppable left-foot volley into the corner of the net" while the Glasgow Times said: "Atkinson volleyed home a stunning last-gasp equaliser that left the home players slumped disbelieving on the turf."

The Riverside Olympic product was modest about the goal but proud of his team's resilience.

"I don't really get up the pitch that much but I have dreamed about it a couple of times," he said on Hearts' Twitter feed.

"No right-foot volleys, just left-foot, I don't know why. It's not just for standing on!

"When things don't go your way, you just need to find a way to stay in the game and we did that. We've been hit with a couple injuries through the season and that just shows the depth that we have to push on.

"It just gives us that extra bit of extra bit of confidence to push on into next week."

Atkinson was referring to Thursday's European fixture at the Stadio Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence, home of two-time Serie A champions Fiorentina.

The A-League champion and Tokyo Olympian, who appears well placed to make the Socceroos squad for next month's World Cup in Qatar, came on as a substitute for the last half hour in last week's 3-0 home loss to Fiorentina in front of 17,243 fans in Edinburgh.

Atkinson, whose transfer from Melbourne City was for an undisclosed fee, hopes sixth-placed Hearts can build on the 2-2 draw at Rugby Park.

"It's disappointing to drop some points but it's also a bit of a positive coming back so late in the game.

"In hindsight it's not the best result but I'm quite happy to get a point out of it. And it just shows that the boys are willing to fight all the way.

"When the second goal went in for them, everyone was disappointed but you could tell everyone had a fire in their belly. It was still early on in the game and we had plenty of time to come back, and we did that."

Atkinson played 49 A-League games for Melbourne City, scoring three goals including in the 2021 grand final victory against Sydney, when he was named player of the match.

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