TYNECASTLE MEN ARE STRONGER THIS TIME BUT RANGERS HAVE ACES TO TRUMP HEARTS ONCE AGAIN

Jefferies' chance to end wait for trophy

Ken Gallacher, Chief Footnall Writer

23 Nov 1996

HEARTS spent yesterday at Tynecastle talking of dreams and worrying over nightmares as they moved towards their second cup final showdown with Rangers inside five months.

The Tynecastle manager, Jim Jefferies, is under no illusions about the grief which his club's supporters suffered last May when they lost 5-1 in the Scottish Cup final against the Ibrox side.

His message yesterday was how the players would try to repay those fans in tomorrow's Coca-Cola Cup final for the misery which was heaped upon them in one of the most one-sided matches in recent years.

"We have a debt to repay to the supporters," said the Hearts manager, a supporter himself, of course.

"We are all aware of that.

This is the chance to do it, and it has come only five months after the Hampden disappointment.

We know that we should have done better last time.

Well, now we can prove it." But as Jefferies re-lived the agony of that summer's day, one of the new players he has brought in this season to strengthen the Hearts' challenge, Frenchman Stephan Paille - once the subject of a football ban in his own country after being found positive in a drugs' test - looked forward to earning a more permanent contract at Tynecastle.

His troubles in France have left their scar and the 31-year-old striker insisted yesterday that there is no way he would ever return to his own country to continue his playing career.

The current deal he has with Hearts has just two months remaining, but he hopes that another will soon be on offer and a victory at Celtic Park would help him towards that aim.

Yesterday he said: "It is a dream for me and for the club to be in this final.

It would be an even greater dream if we were able to win the trophy .

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but I know it would be another nightmare if we were to lose." He then added confidently: "It may help me that I don't know very much about Rangers, because there is no way that I will be afraid of them." Paille must hope that his fellow players at Tynecastle will share that disregard for the reputation of the opposition.

His manager will hope so, too, and he was swift to point out that almost half the team who will play tomorrow did not take part in the Hampden disaster.

However, there is no way that Jefferies and his team can avoid references to that match.

The bookmakers have Rangers as very clear favourites, with their price at 8-13 and the Edinburgh club outsiders at 9-2.

These are odds which even the most fanatical Hearts followers will not be able to argue with.

The Hampden hangover follows them into this encounter and, as well as those sad, sad memories of May, they are now being asked to face a Rangers team which is surely rejuvenated after their most recent results.

As manager Walter Smith pointed out: "A victory in the Old Firm game against Celtic, which pushed us back to the top of the premier division, and then our first win in the Champions League, will be sure to help the confidence of the players.

"We had lost our way a little bit with some earlier results, but they have been put into the past." That is what Hearts are attempting to do, of course, consign the Scottish Cup final to history and make it up to the supporters who went to Hampden and will return to Celtic Park as the club still look for that so elusive trophy win.

More than 30 years have passed since they last won a cup - this same one, incidentally, when it was simply known as the League Cup - and some day that drought will surely end.

The worry for Hearts is that few outside Tynecastle can see it end tomorrow.

Hearts are a stronger outfit than they were last season.

The fact that they are returning to a final after just five months away will help ease the nerves that big occasions always bring.

There is less likelihood of some of the players freezing, as a few did at Hampden.

However, Rangers have the genius of Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne to call upon.

And Laudrup was emphasising earlier this week just how much he enjoys playing at Parkhead.

That is a big enough problem for the Edinburgh team.

But they also recognise that Gascoigne is a player who thrives when the spotlight is turned in his direction, who constantly talks of how much it means to him to win medals, and here he is poised to land his third since signing for the Glasgow club.

Then, too, there is Rangers captain Richard Gough, who, in his last season with the club, views the treble as a personal holy grail.

His leadership is always important, his influence enormous, and his determination in this kind of situation can never be questioned.

Personally, I believe that the game will be much closer than the Scottish Cup final and that Hearts will return to Edinburgh with some pride restored, but I cannot see their open-topped bus being required for a tour of the capital.

Gough's dream of one last treble will survive the afternoon and Rangers will take the Coca-Cola Cup back to Ibrox - but it will be much more difficult than the bookmakers are predicting.

Taken from the Herald