Hearts could have the chance to turn a poor season into a truly memorable one if they end up in the Scottish Cup Final.
They have Aberdeen in the semis and it’s a massive opportunity. Hearts, who will be delighted they have managed to avoid Celtic, have a great record at home against the Dons. Also, outwith beating Hibs in last November’s League Cup semi-final, Aberdeen’s recent record at Hampden isn’t great.
They started the season well and are a decent team but have hit the skids of late. If there was ever an opportunity for Hearts to get to a final, this is it. Aberdeen will be saying the same thing. Yes, Celtic will be big favourites… but the key is getting there. If they can see off Aberdeen, then anything can happen in 90 or so minutes at Hampden.
I don’t want to jinx it and say Hearts can lift the cup but what an achievement that would be. Hearts were the bottom of the league when Neil Critchley came in almost five months ago.
If he can finish the campaign by winning the Scottish Cup and taking the club into the group stage of European football again, it would be absolutely outrageous.
Even if they were to manage to wrangle a European place, what an achievement it would be for the manager personally. How often do you have such a poor start to a season then the potential to end on such a high?
It is great for everybody connected to Hearts. When you get to this stage of the season, you want to be playing and competing for things.
This semi-final is massive for the fans, the players and the staff. They will all be buzzing with that draw. If you are a Hearts player, you would be skipping in to make sure you do everything you possibly can to be in that team for the upcoming games, including that semi-final.
The most important thing was they beat Dundee in last Friday’s quarter-final and bounced back after the Hibs game. Credit to them for doing that.
I watched the game and they did well enough. They had a wee bit of a wobble but managed to find their way out of it.
Dundee was always going to be a difficult game, given how poor a performance it was against Hibs, especially in the second half. The be-all and end-all in cup competition is making sure you get through… and they got the job done.
Sander Kartum scored a couple of quality goals and looked decent. I was at the St Mirren game and a lot of the boys had been saying Kartum looked amazing in training.
The first couple of games, it was difficult for him. He certainly found it hard against the Buddies but you can see he’s now finding his feet.
Everybody at the club says he is a really good player. The suggestion is he is more suited off the striker or in the middle.
He is being asked to play wide just now in the diamond and I’m not sure that suits him. His first goal against Dundee, it was so nonchalant.
As soon as he hit it, you could see it was going in the top corner. I hate admitting it but left-footers always look better than right and he seems a classy player. He’ll be a decent signing. He affects games and if you can score goals like that, he will become a big player for Hearts.
Ross County come to Tynecastle now on Saturday and Hearts need to try to put another run together. It was such a blow losing at Easter Road because if we had won that, we would have been right up there with Hibs in the league.
The result went the other way and left the momentum with Hibs. It is now going to be mighty difficult to try to catch them in the league.
For once, Hibs have stuck by a manager who is decent. Normally you have seen them chop and change. Hibs have been in turmoil for years. Everybody is now starting to see David Gray’s team and the way they play.
They look decent. They will be difficult to catch, that is my honest opinion, and the priority has to be the Scottish Cup.
If Hearts can be consistent in the league, we can see where it takes them over the next four or five weeks. Sitting seventh, these games are vitally important to get as high up the table as they can.
They have to make sure they are in the top six. If they can string a run of wins together, they could well still catch Hibs.
But just now it’s important to push for the European place and also to get another crack at Hibs. I wouldn’t want to go into the summer having been beaten twice by our city rivals.