Aberdeen should rise to the occasion.

Every neutral football follower who was enthralled by the exploits of Heart of Midlothian in the league is ardently hoping they will find consolation for their ill-fated romance by winning the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park today.

The bookmakers, however make their opponents, Aberdeen, favourites to take the trophy.

Although they failed to retain their league championship because of inconsistency Aberdeen still appear the team more likely to show their best form on the big occasion.

It may be significant that victory for Aberdeen today would make them the first side, other than Rangers and Celtic, to win both domestic cups in the same season, after their 3-0 Skol Cup victory against Hibernian.

Hearts, however, have shown they are unlikely to freeze because their success has come from solid team-work and a simple pattern of play.

The most difficult task for Alex MacDonald, their manager, will be to restore morale after their unexpected stumble at the last league hurdle when they lost to Dundee, allowing Celtic to take the championship.

Aberdeen's resolute defensive partnership of McLeish and Miller will be hard pressed to contain the venomous attacks led by the Hearts trio of Clark, Robertson and Colquhoun, but on the other hand, Aberdeen are more experienced and powerful than Hearts, even without the sprightly Black, who is joining the French club, Metz, and is dropped from the cup final team.

Whether Aberdeen are as menacing as Hearts in attack may be questioned but Joe Miller is one of the country's most promising attackers, Weir an entrancing winger and McDougall and Hewitt noted scorers.

Aberdeen, then, appear the more likely winners, even more so because the country's history shows that misfortune rather than triumph is usually the fate of fleeting flowers of Scotland.

ABERDEEN: J Leighton; S McKimmie, T McQueen, J Bett, A McLeish, W Miller, W Stark, J McMaster, N Cooper, J Hewitt, J Miller, F McDougall, P Weir.

HEARTS: H Smith; W Kidd, B Whittaker, S Jardine, C Levein, K Black, N Berry, R McDonald, G Mackay, J Colquhoun, S Clark, J Robertson, G Cowie.

Copyright (C) The Times, 1986

Taken from timesonline.co.uk