Hearts welcome Dundee with revenge and apprehension in the Tynecastle air with one big suspension
Scottish Cup quarter-final weekend begins with repeat of 50 years ago
The last time Dundee played in the last eight of the Scottish Cup at Tynecastle, fifty years ago on Saturday, they were entitled to feel confident on the back of a run of five straight wins.
Although Tony Docherty has been unsurprisingly quick to indicate otherwise, the mood in the visitors’ camp must be somewhat different ahead of Friday night’s clash with Hearts at the same stage. A sequence of five straight defeat in the league was only stemmed last weekend with a 1-1 draw against St Johnstone.
It’s given Docherty some cheer and means he is within his right to see Tynecastle as a potential next step in a recovery process that could lead to a revival in the league. But with Dundee missing their best player, the suspended Lyall Cameron, Hearts remain clear favourites even if they themselves have been left licking their own wounds following last weekend’s derby defeat to Hibs. It’s left the clash looking like a tough one to categorise.
Will Dundee feel emancipated following their recent struggles in the league knowing it’s a one-off tie? And are Hearts, conscious that their season is in danger of petering out, at risk of falling prey to anxiety being emitted by their supporters? This seems particularly conceivable in the absence of an early breakthrough.
Some of these fans have already taken apprehension to a new level by proposing whether Hearts might be better served getting knocked out rather than risk a potential last four meeting with in-form Hibs at Hampden. They’ve never lost to their rivals at the national stadium and don’t want to be introduced to the feeling now.
Whichever way one looks at it, it’s an intriguing tie under the lights at Tynecastle to kick off the weekend of Scottish Cup football.
Revenge will be in the air given what happened last time the teams met. Indeed, it could be argued that Hearts are at the root of Dundee’s recent decline since it set in following their thumping 6-0 win at Dens at the start of last month. “Dundee had a lift last week with their point,” said Tynecastle manager Neil Critchley. “It'll be a cup competition so maybe a slightly different approach in terms of how they'll feel psychologically going into the game. But it's about us, it's about how we play, how we play at home. We want to make sure that we show a response from our game last week.”
Critchley might have been taken aback by the level of criticism levelled at his side following the defeat to Hibs. On its own, a 2-1 loss to their rivals, while undesirable, might have been put down to a bad afternoon at the office. But it’s now three-in-a row for Critchley without a win against Hibs. It has been pointed out by some of the manager’s doubters that he has been unable to beat any of Scotland’s current top four: Celtic, Rangers, Hibs and Aberdeen.
“They’re all big games when you play for Hearts,” Critchley countered. “If you look at the situation when I came in, we had two points after eight games. Every game from that moment was a big game.”
That certainly applies to the next one. As for what happened in 1975, when the teams last met in the last eight of the Scottish Cup. A late Gordon Wallace equaliser for the visitors took the tie back to Dens, where Dundee prevailed 3-2 in front of 25,000.
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