Paulo Sergio was unaware cup tie went to replay

HEARTS manager Paulo Sergio has revealed that he feared one of his mistakes might cost his team a place in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup.

Having drawn with St Johnstone in the initial cup head to head almost two weeks ago, he was relieved that his side had managed to edge a tight replay at Perth on Tuesday and set up a meeting with St Mirren in the next round. Especially as he had made a bloomer in the initial home tie.

“I have a confession to make from the first cup tie against St Johnstone at Tynecastle. I did not know that the game would go to another match after the 90 minutes, I thought there would be extra time. Because of that I had not used my substitutes because I thought we would have more time. In Portugal we have a first match with extra time and then another with extra time and then penalties. So when the first game finished 1-1, Steve [Lomas] came over to shake my hand and I was brushing him away saying ‘what are you doing, we will speak later’. I was too busy speaking with my coaching staff because I though the game was going into extra time.

“If you see the images from the end of the game I look surprised when Steve comes to shake my hand. But then he told me that it was over, it goes to a replay, and there wasn’t extra time at Tynecastle. I did not have the information. When I realised this I wanted to shoot myself.”

In the second game, he knew exactly what to expect but with the game finely balanced he said he tried to avoid it going beyond the 90 minutes. “Even though I knew the game went to extra time in the second game I still used my three substitutes trying to win it in the 90 minutes.”

One of those substitutes, Suso Santana repaid him by winning the penalty which allowed Jamie Hamill to cancel out St Johnstone’s lead with the last real kick of the 90 minutes. And once it went into extra time another of Sergio’s reshuffles earned them the winner, when Ryan McGowan was sent on to replace Marius Zaliukas in defence and free the captain to see out the contest as an auxiliary striker. In the end it was the Lithuanian who capitalised on a goalmouth melee, eventually slamming the winner in from close range. “It was a brilliant feeling,” said Zaliukas, who, along with his team-mates celebrated like they had already won the silverware. “Over the last couple of years we haven’t got through this round and last year was lost to St Johnstone so this one made it even more special. We are now looking forward to the next round and then hopefully looking to Hampden.”

He had feared the worst though when they lost the opener with just seven minutes of the match remaining. “I had a really bad feeling when they scored. It was probably their only shot on target and it was a goal. But we were lucky we got the penalty and left happy.”

St Johnstone were enraged by the award and television replays did little to dilute their sense of injustice, with even Zaliukas admitted it was a close call. “I was very close to it and I would say it was 50-50 but the decision has been made and you can’t change it. This decision is going to give us a lot of confidence. It also shows what can be achieved if we fight until the last minute. Suso has been a big influence to us when he came on in the last two games. He has made some good decisions to win us a point and then a penalty in the cup. He has lifted everybody.”

Afterwards the players celebrated with their fans, throwing strips into the crowd and he said he had little time for what the money men at the cash-strapped club would think of that. “I don’t care, to be honest,” said Zaliukas. “I will pay.”

He also doesn’t care about the situation Rangers find themselves in. Deducted 10 points in the SPL and out the Scottish Cup, the Hearts captain said he was focusing only on what his team could do in both competitions, acknowledging that a higher place finish in the SPL and a run all the way to the cup final would have positive financial ramifications. “We want to go to Hampden and hopefully that can also help the club. We are going to fight for every point in the league and every single victory. We want to do our best. We are looking to ourselves. [What is happening at Rangers] doesn’t change anything because we will always try to do everything we can. We now have a marathon of games. We have Motherwell on Saturday and we are not thinking about Rangers.”