Saints striker would love to repeat shock over Hearts

St Johnstone are the visitors to Tynecastle this weekend in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup and Samuel would love to repeat the heroics which saw Falkirk knock Hearts out of the competition back in 2003.

The St Johnstone striker was on the Bairns' books back then and netted three times to send the Jambos out of the cup, with Owen Coyle scoring the only other goal in a 4-0 victory.

All four goals that day were scored in the opening 31 minutes at the old Brockville Stadium and Samuel admits that it is a game he will never forget.

While he would love to repeat that feat, he insists he would be more than happy with just one goal, just as long as its Saints who progress.

The Trinidad and Tobago hitman said: "It's the first time that I have come up against Hearts in the cup since I scored that hat-trick, so hopefully it will be a good sign for us.

"All I remember from that day is that I was determined to go out and score the first goal - I hadn't even thought about a hat-trick.

"It was my first Scottish Cup game and I just wanted to score because I knew how important that first goal could be to Falkirk's chances of going through. It's the same this weekend. All I want is to score the first goal but I don't mind who scores the goals, just as long as we get through.

"We know that they will be a hard team to play, especially at the moment, but if we can get the first goal then we will give ourselves a good chance."

Samuel has so far scored only twice for Saints this season, his second of the campaign coming in the 1-0 win over Inverness last weekend and he conceded that he is keen to add to that tally over the coming weeks.

However, he knows his side face a difficult task against one of the form sides in the SPL: "Of course I would like to get more goals, I think that every striker would say the same.

"I was pleased to get the goal at the weekend because it was an important win for us and I was delighted to be able to score the goal that got us the points."

"The game against Hearts this weekend is probably one of the harder ties that we could have been given but we are looking forward to it. They are on a good run right now so it should be a good test for everyone and a good atmosphere because Tynecastle is always a great place to play.

"It's good to go into this game off the back of a win last weekend as well."That will definitely have boosted our confidence a bit."

Saints, like every other side in the country, have had to deal with the frustration of several call-offs in recent weeks because of the weather, but have to be pleased with the fact that they have lost only one of their last five matches.

Their defeat to Celtic apart - the Glasgow side only notched a win thanks to two goals in stoppage time on Boxing Day - the Perth outfit have racked up wins over Inverness, St Mirren and Aberdeen, as well as a draw at Easter Road.

And Samuel added: "The Celtic result was really frustrating for us because we managed to hold them off for so long before they scored their first goal.

"We have had a few games postponed because of the weather which has made it difficult for us but, if you look at our last four or five results they have been kind to us, so hopefully we can get a few more good results in the next few weeks as well.

"You always want to do well in the cup competitions, no matter what. The manager just wants us to go out in every single game that we play and make sure that we do the very best that we can.

"We know that this will be a challenging game for us because Hearts have managed to put together a good run of results over the last couple of months.

"We have played against them a couple of times this season and we have lost one and drawn one, so it would be nice to add a win to that."