There will be no repeat of the Scottish Cup final rout of two years ago - when a stricken Hearts' team left Hampden in despair after losing 5-1 to Rangers - when the two teams meet again this afternoon at Celtic Park.

Nor will there be any repeat of the three easy premier division victories Rangers enjoyed against Hearts in their four meetings this season as the Edinburgh club also challenged for the title, eventually won by Celtic last week.

Instead, this afternoon's final will be a game which will have more in common with the draw Hearts gained at Ibrox in their third meeting of the season with the Glasgow team.

Rangers are expected to win, but as they prepared yesterday, their players and manager Walter Smith will have recognised that the Tynecastle team have improved enormously since that afternoon at Hampden when they collapsed so ignominiously, crashing to the biggest cup final defeat in quarter of a century.

Certainly Rangers have injury and suspension problems - but, they have coped with these throughout the season, and still took the title race to the last day.

There is also the emotion surrounding the occasion, the ''Last Hurrah'' for Smith and the players who have campaigned relentlessly for success over the past decade.

They will see this as a fitting farewell, yet another trophy to be won to add to all those others which have been collected by the group of players who gave Rangers the most successful period in their long history.

Smith, however, insists that personal feelings cannot be allowed to intrude before the game. He admits: ''Quite a few of us will be going to Parkhead knowing that this will be the last time we shall all be together, but these thoughts have to be pushed to one side.''

The midfield area will be of most concern to Smith because he has lost German Jorg Albertz and Swede Jonas Thern, both of whom have been been influential in the end-of-season comeback which pushed Rangers into this final, and gave them hopes of taking their tenth title last weekend.

That wasn't to be, but the players will not want the chance of further glory ripped from their grasp now, and whoever Smith puts into that vital area will play with the conviction demanded by the manager.

It could be that Charlie Miller, whose appearances in the first team have been hit by so many injuries, will be given a place from the start. He has not played for six months, but Smith could select him now.

The manager says: ''It could be that Charlie could do the job that Jorg Albertz has been doing over the past few weeks. He is fit again, and he will feature at some stage of the game. What I have to decide is whether to play him from the beginning or have him on the bench. We will look at that in the morning, and that's when a decision will be taken on Andy Goram's fitesss too.

''He has a 50-50 chance of making it, and he has been looking good, but we cannot take any risks because this is a game where I will want to have three outfield players on the bench. In any case, I would have no fears about playing Antti Niemi.''

Hearts will have club captain Gary Locke sidelined and Steve Fulton seems the likely man to captain the team on the day. Manager Jim Jefferies must also decide whether he plays one of his own ''Old Guard'', striker John Robertson, who, like so many of the Ibrox players, looks sure to be leaving the club. The most important factor for Jefferies is that after the stumbles which ended their challenge for the League, his players appear to have recovered their early season form.

The Hearts' manager, who collected his trophy as Bell's Manager of the Year yesterday, says: ''The team has been gathering momentum in the last few weeks and we have shown that early season form which kept us in the hunt for the title.

''I have to admit I was surprised to be named manager of the year ahead of Wim Jansen, who won two trophies for Celtic. But I like to think that I was given the award because of what Hearts have achieved over the past few years, paticularly this season, with limited resources.''

Then Jefferies added words of praise for his rival manager today saying: ''Walter is the same guy he was when he started at Ibrox, and it is a privilege to follow in his footsteps as manager of the year.'' The Hearts' manager hopes that a cup final win to end 36 years of disappointment for the club would act as a springboard for further success.

Smith, meanwhile, looks for a victory to add to the many he has savoured down through the years but also as a last gift to the club he supported as a boy and which, as Jefferies also stressed, he has managed with distinction.

The belief is, though, thatHearts will suffer again, though they will not capitulate as their fans have seen them do so often when facing Rangers. Instead they will match the Ibrox men, and their young players, Paul Ritchie, and Gary Naysmith, could come of age today.

But they must tame Brian Laudrup, and they must beware the hurt pride which could inspire and lift that ageing legend, Ally McCoist, who will attempt to underline that he should be in the Scotland World Cup squad.

Indeed, that may be the worst thing that has happened for Hearts during this week of preparation for the final.