Hearts must show confidence in final

Kevin McCarra considers that self-doubt in the ranks of both teams raises the potential for a game of gratifying uncertainty

If frustration were fuel, Heart of Midlothian would blaze clear of Rangers in the Tennents Scottish Cup final this afternoon.

Their supporters can hardly tell which is the more infuriating, the 36 years that have passed without a trophy or the constant reiteration of the fact in the press.

Nonetheless, a statistic cannot be ignored once it has become the context of the club's existence.

Hearts are closer now to clasping a trophy than at any point since their great era petered out at the beginning of the 1960s.

Under Jim Jefferies, the manager, who took over at Tynecastle in 1995, there have been several vigorous forays.

It is unfortunate that each advance has led them to the same impasse, a game with Rangers.

Hearts were beaten by the Ibrox side in the 1996 Scottish Cup final and lost 4-3 to them in the final of the Coca-Cola Cup six months later.

The greatest flaw in the recent record of the Edinburgh club appears to be the nature of their adversaries.

The disappointments, however, have never reduced Hearts to a maudlin helplessness.

This season they were able to sustain a challenge for the Bell's Scottish League premier division title until the middle of last month.

Although Hearts have failed to beat Rangers in the process, it took a free kick in stoppage time for them to be denied a victory at Ibrox in February.

If they reach their full potential this afternoon, against weakened opponents, Jefferies's side could well win the final.

The possibility of exuberance exists in figures such as Neil McCann, the winger, and Steve Fulton, the midfield player.

The manager has yet to reveal whether John Robertson, the veteran forward, will be selected, but he does possess a cutting edge that could tear open a Rangers defence that recently has been flimsy.

There are concerns, though, over the ability of Hearts to summon the confidence that underpins a breezy performance.

Form waned as their hopes in the championship faded and the victory last weekend, over Dunfermline Athletic, was their first win in seven matches.

Hearts will have to lay hands on a vitality that has been mislaid.

Rangers do not approach this game with the usual aura of authority.

Apart from finding that their run of league titles has been halted by Celtic, they also have to cope with the loss of an entire midfield.

It was the club's choice to sell Paul Gascoigne to Middlesbrough, but Rangers have had others taken from them.

Jorg Albertz and Alex Cleland are suspended, and Jonas Thern misses the final through injury.

In his concluding game before standing down as manager, Walter Smith is seeking a culmination to his tenure in a season that so far has been filled with disappointment.

His side will have a makeshift appearance, particularly in midfield.

It is possible that Rangers could even select Ian Durrant, valuing his guile despite the fact that he rarely features nowadays and is providing his last afternoon of service to the club that he has been with for more than a decade.

Several of the side, including Andy Goram, 34, the goalkeeper, Richard Gough, 36, who played with assurance on his return from the United States (he will be heading back), Ally McCoist, 35, and Brian Laudrup are about to leave Rangers.

We are yet to find out the consequences of that imminent disbanding of a team.

There have been many distractions at Ibrox.

A mutual disenchantment between Marco Negri, scorer of 36 goals this season, and the club ensured that the Italian has not featured in the starting line-up recently after his slow recovery from a serious eye injury.

Laudrup is bitter over the club's attempt to extract compensation from Chelsea, whom the Dane joins shortly after four seasons with Rangers.

The effect of the grievances has still to be gauged.

It may be that the resolve of the squad to fasten a day of fulfilment to the end of their careers with Rangers will be a dominant influence.

Determination, though, has been insufficient of late to compensate for the limitations and the side that takes the field today is far from the one that Smith would wish to pick.

All of the reservations add lustre to the occasion.

So great are the doubts over Hearts and Rangers that it seems reasonable to expect a match of gratifying uncertainty.

The final may be the most fierce engagement of the day, but the muffled sound of distant cannon fire is to be heard in the background.

Wim Jansen, the Celtic head coach who resigned on Monday, has expanded on his troubled relationship with Jock Brown, the club's general manager, and claimed that he had been frequently rebuffed in his attempts to buy players.

Jansen reported, for example, that he had wished to sign Karlheinz Riedle, the veteran Germany forward who later moved to Livepool, only to learn that Celtic had not even approached Borussia Dortmund with an inquiry.

"I had to fight with people at Celtic more than with my opponents," he said.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk