Milwall player Chris Hackett relishing challenge of taking on Hearts in friendly

On 1 June, 2006, Valdas Ivanauskas informed the Evening News that Hackett and Lee Johnson were free to find new clubs less than six months after their arrivals from Oxford United and Yeovil Town respectively. Unfortunately, the Lithuanian interim head coach had omitted to tell the players of their fate.

Hackett managed just two appearances in maroon but, with Rix having been dismissed in March that year, he half expected he was surplus to requirements. To his credit, he holds no grudge at being moved on through the media and speaks fondly of his time in Edinburgh. Hearts face the Lions in Neil Harris' testimonial in London this afternoon, and the memories flooding Hackett's mind will be only positive.

"I was speaking to Neil about it because he was asking me about Hearts. As a club, I only have good things to say about Hearts," he explained.

"It's a fantastic club with a great history and great supporters. I remember the size of the club so I know what we'll be playing.

"I only had a short time up there and I was very young but what I found out was that it was a very good club.

"I only made a few appearances and it didn't work out due to a couple of reasons.

"It was an experience in itself which made me a better person and a better player. Being in Edinburgh and the experiences I went through helped me. They are a former club of mine so I'm looking forward to playing against them, it adds a bit of extra interest to it.

"I'd come from Oxford in January 2006 and moved up to Edinburgh by myself.

"At the time there were all the crazy goings on behind the scenes. I didn't know exactly what was happening but there were managers coming and going and changes here and there. The stability behind the scenes was a bit all over the place and I was kind of a victim of that. There was lots of stuff off the field to deal with.

"I had moved away from family and friends and found that difficult enough.

"When you have a couple of years left on your contract and get the option to move to a club (Millwall] only 45 minutes from family and friends, a team which had just come down from the Championship, it was an option I knew was in my best interests.

"I would have loved to have fought it out at Hearts, shown what I'm capable of and tried to fight my way into the team. I'd liked to have proved people wrong but at the time it was the right decision for me to go. Maybe if I was older it would have been different because it was a club I really wanted to play for.

"To be fair to Valdas, I think things off the field were taking up a lot of time. The running of the actual playing staff almost took a back seat and things weren't done quite in the right way. It sounds like things have settled down a bit now. When I was at Hearts something else was always coming up.

"It was a little bit crazy. The media circus almost took over the actual running of the team, which was a shame.

"You live and learn from these things and I took a lot of things from my time at Hearts."

Hackett maintained he has nothing to prove to Hearts having become an established figure with Millwall, helping them secure a return to the Championship last season.

"I want to prove a point each time I step on the pitch, not just against Hearts," he continued. "If it proves something to Hearts then fair play but I won't go out thinking about that. There were a lot of circumstances relating to why Lee and I left, it wasn't all footballing reasons. I just used it to drive me on."

"I want to prove a point each time I step on the pitch, not just against Hearts"