Skacel driven by the glory of Hearts’ cup win in 2006

BY guiding Hearts into the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup for only the third time in the last 14 years, Paulo Sergio completed an eye-catching sequence of results to revitalise a season which had been threatening to fizzle out tamely for the Tynecastle club.

Wednesday night’s quarter-final replay win over St Mirren in Paisley, combined with back-to-back SPL victories over Rangers at Ibrox and at home to Hibs which all but assured a top-six finish, have restored a feelgood factor around Hearts in spite of their ongoing cashflow problems.

Another payment from Sky Sports, who will have live television coverage of the Hampden semi-final against Celtic on 15 April, will certainly be welcome. But, for Sergio, the opportunity to write his name into the record books as a cup-winning manager is a greater incentive.

The 44-year-old Portuguese coach has coped impressively with the turbulence which is simply part of the job specification for anyone accepting the hot seat under Vladimir Romanov’s stewardship of Hearts. Since replacing Jim Jefferies last August, Sergio has compiled a decent record of 15 wins and just 12 defeats from his 37 games in charge so far. With many of those victories achieved during spells when his players have not been paid on time, it says much for Sergio’s ability to command their respect and commitment.

Hearts have done it the hard way in the Scottish Cup. They had to scrap for a distinctly unimpressive 1-0 fourth round win against Ayrshire juniors Auchinleck Talbot, while only a stoppage time penalty from Jamie Hamill earned them extra-time and eventual victory over St Johnstone in a fifth round replay at McDiarmid Park.

Sergio’s capacity for getting the best out of his squad will be tested to the full in a semi-final which Hearts will enter as considerable outsiders.

They have lost their last five meetings with Celtic in the Scottish Cup, their last win coming in a fourth round tie at Tynecastle back in 1987 when John Robertson scored the only goal of the game. Hearts have only ever beaten Celtic at Hampden once, when they famously lifted the 1956 Scottish Cup with a 3-1 final triumph which ended a 50-year hoodoo in the competition.

But, with Kilmarnock’s League Cup win over Neil Lennon’s men last Sunday fresh in the mind, Hearts will certainly not travel to the south side of Glasgow next month without genuine hope.

They will also go there with a talisman on board. Rudi Skacel further enhanced his iconic status among the Hearts supporters at St Mirren Park on Wednesday, sealing the 2-0 victory with his late goal after Hamill had opened the scoring in the first half.

Skacel has now scored 24 times in his second spell at the club and the 32-year-old Czech is nurturing dreams of emulating the Scottish Cup glory he experienced first time around. Skacel was a key man in Hearts 2006 campaign in the tournament, including scoring in both open play and the penalty shoot-out when Gretna were defeated in the final.

“It’s an amazing memory and there is a huge motivation for me to take the lads to Hampden, do our job there and make it through to the final,” said Skacel. “What happened after the game in 2006 was amazing, and what our supporters did for us at that time was incredible.

“It was like we had won the World Cup. So I have nice memories of that and a big motivation to get there. But this is a different time and a different team and we have to try and play well enough to get there.

“It’s a semi-final, it’s 50-50, it doesn’t matter who your opponent is. There is a big motivation. Hearts will have half the stadium behind us and we believe we can do it. It’s only 90 minutes.”

Skacel maintained a remarkable record against St Mirren, having now scored six goals in ten appearances against the Paisley club over his two periods as a Hearts player.

“I have been a little bit lucky in the last two seasons against them but there are some teams who you sometimes always seem to score against,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you score against as long as you score. But I said to [St Mirren manager] Danny Lennon that was the last time we’ll play each other this season so he’s safe now!

“We are so happy to be in the semi-final. We should have finished the job earlier.

“We didn’t start the game very well and Jamie MacDonald made a massive save from their penalty at 0-0. It woke us up and then we started to play and we were the better team.”