CRAIG HALKETT says that there was hardly anything between Hearts and Rangers at Hampden as Robbie Neilson’s men fell just short in the Scottish Cup Final.
The Tynecastle side managed to take Rangers to extra-time after a goalless, hard-fought 90 minutes at the national stadium, but quickfire goals from Ryan Jack and Scott Wright finally broke down Hearts’ resistance.
Gutted Halkett couldn’t hide his disappointment at losing out on silverware, but admitted that he and his teammates simply ran out of steam.
"Clearly there wasn't much [in it] over the 90 minutes,” Halkett said.
"We had a game plan and we stuck to it very well; we limited Rangers to a small number of chances and had a couple ourselves.
"Ellis (Simms) had a right good chance and was unlucky near the start.
"I think Craig (Gordon) only had two or three saves to make in the game. When it went to extra time and they got the goal from the corner, it was one of those where we defended the first ball and then it was a great strike from Ryan Jack at the edge of the box.
"When that goal went in it just seemed to deflate us, and when they got the second, we started to chase a wee bit, and boys started to tire."
Despite the pain of the final defeat, Halkett says that Hearts can be rightly proud of what they have achieved this season.
"It's tough, obviously it's very soon after the game but we're really disappointed,” he said.
"I think in a few hours' time, a few days' time when we look back and reflect we can all be proud of ourselves for the season that we've had, coming straight back up from the Championship, finishing third, guaranteeing the club European football and also reaching the Scottish Cup final.
"It is disappointing not to go all the way and win it but we gave it a good go and got it to extra time but I think Rangers just had too much on the day.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel