Classic match: Hearts 2, Aberdeen 1: April 6, 1996

Hearts, to be fair, weren't much better, using Hampden's vast grassland to batter the ball into the air.

Even their one real incision, a swift turn and shot from Allan Johnston, was deflected by a defender before Michael Watt sprawled and clutched.

But at the interval, Jambos boss Jim Jefferies poured out his feelings to players who had looked as if they were halfway towards missing out on a repeat trip to the national stadium.

Jefferies told his young players, including captain Gary Locke (pictured above, left, with Johnston] with the that there should be no assumptions about there always being next year.

He then addressed the older ones, whose spirit had allegedly been crushed by disappointments suffered during the previous decade, and asked them to have faith in themselves.

Jefferies implored his players to ignore their own feelings of apprehension and attack Aberdeen.

"I told them that if they had a go I would back them, irrespective of how the game ended," he said.

One minute into the second half, Alan Lawrence skimmed past Gary Smith and tore down on Watt before whacking the ball into the side-netting.

With the match looking like heading for a replay, key substitutions were made.

Aberdeen's Duncan Shearer replaced Hugh Robertson after 71 minutes while Hearts legend John Robertson appeared for Lawrence three minutes later.

The two of them then fired this affair with to a grand and astonishing finale.

Robertson, not always in accord with Jefferies about the way the game should be played, had been on the pitch a mere six minutes before he threw himself at a cross and into a melee of Aberdeen defenders to score and once more write a thundering chapter about his place in the life of Hearts.

In that stinging 80th minute, everyone in the ground thought the last word was his.

Shearer, though, had other ideas.

When Stephen Glass' swirling free-kick floated high beyond Gilles Rousset, he leapt a remarkable height to force the ball home.

With just three minutes remaining, Hearts were openly cursing one another, until Allan Johnston, in the last minute, rammed home an unanswerable winner.

It was Robertson who sent over the cross which found goalkeeper Watt and Smith uncertain of who should be doing what.

Johnston knew what he was meant to be doing, though, and he stepped in to head home the winner.

"When Aberdeen equalised, my first thought was, 'Will this never end'," said then chairman Chris Robinson, referring to Hearts' penchant for the catastrophic conclusion to semi-final ties.

Robertson said: "I said to Gary Locke: 'I was in your shoes ten years ago, lifting the older players at Tynecastle.

Now, you take me to a final.' The way we got there took my breath away.

"The manager said when he brought me on that the script was written for me to score a goal.

"I didn't even see the winner go into the net.

When I crossed the ball, I lost sight of it in among a cluster of players.

It was only when I saw the supporters rising from their seats that I knew we had scored."

Hearts' Cup joy was short-lived, however, as they were trounced 5-1 by Rangers in the final.

Taken from the Scotsman