Craig Beattie: Hearts Cup win was the most special one for me

Craig Beattie's celebration after his Scottish Cup semi-final winner. Picture: Jeff Holmes/SNS

However, it was his part in helping Hearts beat Hibernian 5-1 in the 2012 final which  provided him with the most satisfaction.

The club, then owned by controversial Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Romanov, had begun enduring severe financial problems the previous October, when they were unable to pay salaries on time.

Hearts would also receive a winding-up order from HMRC in November 2012 due to unpaid tax and they entered administration the following year. Unlike Rangers, though, they avoided liquidation when Ann Budge’s consortium bought the club and took them out of administration in 2014.

For that 90 minutes at Hampden on 19 May, 2012, however, the players put their troubles behind them to hammer their derby rivals and win the old trophy for the eighth time. To achieve that amid such uncertainty was a career high for Beattie.

“I have four winner’s medals, three with Celtic and one with Hearts,” said the 35-year-old. “For the first two you’re being carried by the likes of Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton.

“For the one against Dunfermline under Gordon Strachan, I managed to set up the winner for Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe late in the game.

“With Hearts, though, I managed to score in the quarter-finals, then score with a  penalty against Celtic in the semi-finals and I also had an assist that afternoon. I was booked for taking my top off when I scored but it was the favourite yellow card of my career. I don’t buy into this idea that you don’t celebrate against your former side. I think if you don’t then you’re being disrespectful to your new club, who pay your wages, and their supporters.

“Shortly afterwards, one Celtic fan had been growling at me in a bar about that for about 15 minutes – but I shut him up by telling him I wished I’d taken my shorts off as well!

“It was a memorable goal because there was so much pressure on the club. We were in the middle of the financial crisis and the boys weren’t  getting their wages. Fortunately, I’d just left Swansea and my contract was paid up for the rest of the season so I wasn’t worried about the  money.

“We had directors coming in trying to pacify the lads, telling them they were working on things to sort it. Some of the boys wanted to fight those Lithuanians, although that probably wouldn’t have been the smartest move.

“However, they were going home to their families in debt and having to share cars because they couldn’t afford to pay for their fuel to get into training. The PFA were involved by then and said we would get bonus money if we got through.

“So there was pressure on us from that point of view. Hibs had beaten Aberdeen the day before so one half of Edinburgh was in the final and we would have let the side down if we didn’t make it.

“We had the harder game against Celtic, but we managed to get to the final and that was the most special one for me.”

Even so, Beattie – a free agent after leaving Elgin City last month – believes his first  senior club will complete the triple treble this season.

“As long as Brendan Rodgers is there I think it is a winning machine,” he said. “Brendan has maybe not had the same stranglehold on the signing policy as he did at the start but he keeps churning out result after result. Celtic is just a train that keeps on going.”

l Craig Beattie was speaking at a William Hill media conference. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.