Champions League and a Gret day out

THE mid-week match against Aberdeen was one of the most important in the history of Heart of Midlothian

A goalless first half did nothing to help settle the nerves of the 17,327 supporters crammed inside Tynecastle, but the pendulum swung in Hearts' favour after 52 minutes. Roman Bednar flicked Robbie Neilson's long throw towards the back post at the Gorgie Road end of the ground and Russell Anderson inexplicably handled the ball. Referee Stuart Dougal immediately pointed to the spot.

Paul Hartley calmly placed the ball on the spot. Calm as you like, the Scotland international midfielder stroked the ball home.

Eventually, the shriek of referee Stuart Dougal's whistle pierced the air for the final time, much to the delight of everyone in the ground, especially Paul Hartley! The insufferable tension was relieved, fingernails were removed from mouths and Tynecastle prepared for a party like never before. It was time to make some noise because the Gorgie Boys were going to Europe.

Hearts had secured a place in the Champions League for the first time in their history, and the celebrations began immediately as Tynecastle experienced an atmosphere that many consider to be the best ever at the famous old stadium. The players returned to the dressing-room to change into specially printed T-shirts with 'Champions League: Here We Come . . .' on the front and 'Believe!' on the back, before returning to the field of play to take the acclaim of the supporters.

"It feels great," said Roman Romanov. "Everybody could sense the tension with Rangers not far away, and I think the fans were our extra player on the pitch. Vladimir said we would achieve this at the beginning of the season. He believed it. We did it."

Captaining the first side to split the Old Firm for 11 years ensured it was also a very proud occasion for the Hearts skipper. 'I have been at the club for eight years and waited a long time to experience a night like tonight,' said Steven Pressley. 'I spoke to Mr Romanov 18 months ago, and he expressed his dreams for the club. I suppose a lot of supporters were sceptical, but the dream has come true.'

The first part of Vladimir Romanov's wish had been achieved; now the small matter of beating Gretna at Hampden was all that was required to keep Vlad happy and secure silverware at the end of an incredible and dramatic season.

Pre-match predictions of 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0 were rife in Gorgie as confident Hearts supporters set off for Hampden on the Saturday morning of the final. With Scotland's second-best team taking on little Gretna, it seemed as though there could only be one result; surely it was a case of how many goals the boys in maroon would score.

More than 32,000 Hearts fans took their seats at the national stadium for what they hoped would be an enjoyable and worry-free afternoon.

The fact that Hearts even had the chance to take the game to extra time was down to one of the best tackles ever made by a player wearing a maroon jersey. Bobby Moore's challenge on Pelé at the 1970 World Cup quite rightly goes down in history as one of the best ever, but, from a Hearts perspective, Robbie Neilson's sensational tackle on Gretna substitute David Graham was equally noteworthy. "I just wanted to get back and try and stop him shooting," said Robbie. "Craig [Gordon] did well, as he managed to make him [Graham] go wide, and then I was able to get back in time and make the tackle. It was a relief when I timed it right, as I didn't want to concede another penalty. It was disappointing to give away the first penalty, because they never really threatened from set-pieces and hadn't created too much inside the box. The linesman put his flag up immediately after the penalty was taken, and we thought there was something happening, but Craig had come off his line. I think if they hadn't equalised then, the referee would have allowed them to retake the spot-kick."

Things had not gone according to plan. By half past five, the Hearts players should have been back on the team bus drinking cans of the sponsor's product, toasting a seventh Scottish Cup win, and the contract cleaners should have been out on the pitch cleaning up all the maroon-and-white ticker-tape from the post-match celebrations. Instead, a penalty shoot-out would decide the winners of the 2006 Tennent's Scottish Cup after Gretna midfielder Ryan McGuffie fired home the rebound of his missed penalty from close range - Craig Gordon had saved his second-half spot-kick - to cancel out Rudi Skacel's first-half opener for Hearts.

When Paul Hartley became only the fourth player in the 132-year history of the competition to be sent off in a final (retaliation towards Derek Townsley at the end of extra time sealing his fate), Hearts were without their regular penalty taker and a man who had scored every one of his 14 spot-kicks in a maroon jersey. "I thought I had maybe cost Hearts the Scottish Cup after getting sent off," he said. "I tried to get out to watch the penalties from the dugout, but the officials said I wasn't allowed, so I had to go back to the dressing-room and watch it on the telly with our press officer Clare Cowan. I was pretty confident when Big Elvis stepped up, as he's taken plenty of spot-kicks before, but I wasn't so sure about Robbie - I knew he had a great throw, but I didn't realise he could kick the ball that far!"

Three of Hearts' five penalty takers were to be defenders in the absence of Hartley. Steven Pressley would take the first spot-kick, Robbie Neilson the second and Takis Fyssas the fifth, if required.

Penalty shoot-out: Steven Pressley (Hearts) 1-0; James Grady (Gretna) 1-1; Robbie Neilson (Hearts) 2-1; Mark Birch (Gretna) 2-2; Rudi Skacel (Hearts) 3-2; Derek Townsley (Gretna) 3-2 (penalty saved); Michal Pospisil Hearts 4-2; Gavin Skelton (Gretna) 4-2 (penalty missed).

Hearts had won the 2006 Scottish Cup final, sparking scenes of joyous relief among the 32,000 maroon-and-white-clad supporters inside the national stadium, and also out on the pitch, as the players celebrated a victorious conclusion to a remarkable season. A certain midfielder who'd been stuck in the dressing-room for the previous ten minutes rejoined his teammates on the park. "No one was going to stop me getting onto the pitch to join the celebrations," said Paul Hartley. "It was a fantastic feeling. I've waited a long time for this - to win a major trophy - and celebrating with the rest of the lads is something I'll never forget."

One of the first players Hartley encountered when he ran onto the pitch was Robbie Neilson, and the pair exchanged some banter about Robbie's penalty. The defender, though, insisted he was always confident of scoring from the spot. "I put my name forward straight away to take a penalty," said Neilson. "Elvis was taking the first one, and I said I would take the second. I just wanted to make sure I made good contact and not worry about any of those stupid videos you see about how to take a penalty. It was just a relief to put it away."

Edgaras Jankauskas added a Scottish Cup winner's medal to his Champions League gong with Porto but revealed he was in agony by the end of the game. "We had plenty of chances to score, but with it being a final maybe we were nervous," he said. "Gretna were making things difficult for us, and it wasn't an easy game - it cost us a lot of energy. Several players had cramps - I couldn't move by the end - but unfortunately we had no more substitutions to make, so I had to stay on the park. I couldn't leave my mates with one less! It was a great feeling to win, no matter how it was achieved."

The cup win was also a personal triumph for Valdas Ivanauskas, who had begun the season arranging bibs and sorting out the markers for George Burley's training sessions. It was a roller-coaster ride for him as much as anyone, but the man who always seemed to look so serious was finally able to crack a smile. "We won the cup, and so, for me, it is the biggest day of the season," said the caretaker boss. "The players were very strong. We have had a very long and hard season. It has been a great season, and I think it has been the best season for Hearts Football Club. I know how difficult this final was, but it is all about winning. In the game, we had so many chances, but if you don't take the chances, you can lose the game. If we had scored the second goal, it would have been so much easier, but we didn't, and we had problems with Gretna. Thankfully, it all worked out well in the end."

When Steven Pressley moved to Tynecastle in the summer of 1998, the club was still celebrating winning the Scottish Cup for the first time in 42 years, following the 2-1 victory over Rangers at Parkhead. He didn't expect to have to wait eight more years before realising his ambition to win a trophy with Hearts. It had been a long wait for Elvis - too long, as far as he was concerned - so there was no way he was letting the trophy out of his sight following the players' party at Murrayfield Stadium on the Saturday night.

"The cup came back with me," explained the captain. "I decided to take it home and had a nice little party in the house! It was a very memorable moment for me as captain of Hearts to lift the cup. There aren't many occasions like that in your professional career. It's been a long time in coming, and I don't intend to give it up without a fight."

The whole weekend for the Pressley family was memorable. Pressley's four-year-old son Aaron was the Hearts mascot at Hampden when daddy lifted the Scottish Cup for the first time.

The following day, however, provided the only downside for the Jambos captain. Elvis was accompanied onto the pitch at Tynecastle for the celebrations not by Aaron, but by his niece Morgan. His son decided he would rather go to a birthday party instead because there was a bouncy castle. Nothing, however, was going to deflate the Hearts captain that weekend.

Victory in the Scottish Cup final was a wonderful way to end a remarkable season, and even though the celebrations at the end of the game were not quite as intense as they had been in 1998, it still meant as much for a club who had only experienced winning the Scottish Cup on six previous occasions. A lot of the newspapers that weekend understandably focused on Gretna's hard-luck story, but that in no way detracted from the ongoing celebrations in Gorgie. Sore heads were prevalent throughout the capital and surrounding areas the following morning.

The 2005-06 season proved to be a successful one on the pitch, but there was similar good news off the field.

A record number of "Sold Out" signs were seen at Tynecastle as Hearts' average attendance for league matches reached 16,768 - the 17th-highest since the war and the best since season 1964-65.

The boys in maroon are once again "the talk o' the toon".

Taken from the Scotsman