Murray sets out stall for Glasgow's other team

Thistle’s only success in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup was in 1921, yet in a season when the competition has taken its capacity to produce shocks to a new level, why shouldn’t this club be the one to write a new chapter in its history?

A team from the Bell’s Scottish League second division — in modern-day terms, the third tier — has never reached the Scottish Cup final before. That could become a distinct possibility if Thistle overcame Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle today.

The quarter-final encounter will be an intriguing occasion. Hearts are now favourites to win the cup, after the removal of the Old Firm and threequarters of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague. Yet that new-found status could just as easily make Graham Rix’s side vulnerable. If it can happen to Celtic and Rangers, it can happen to anyone.

Glasgow’s other team have already contributed to the shock factor. They knocked out Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a penalty shoot-out ten days ago after a fourth-round replay, the same Inverness who remain the symbol for giantkillers everywhere in Scotland — even if they have moved into the elite — for twice knocking Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and dumping Hearts out a few seasons ago at Tynecastle.

Throw in the fact that Partick can count on two men, Grant Murray and Mark Roberts, who have cup winners’ medals — Rix has none — and the ingredients are there for yet another upset in this epic story.

Even more so, when you consider that Murray’s moment of glory came as a Hearts player. How often do former players return to haunt their old teams?

The 30-year-old was a substitute when Hearts defeated Rangers in the 1998 Scottish Cup final at Celtic Park and then paraded the trophy in front of 200,000 people on the streets of Edinburgh the following day. It remains the most vivid memory in his career but that will not stop Murray from trying to upset family and friends by winning at Tynecastle.

The Partick captain believes that his team are capable of following in the footsteps of Clyde, who began the whole crazy saga by knocking out Celtic on Roy Keane’s debut eight weeks ago. “I think Clyde gave all of the lower-division teams inspiration,” Murray said. “The cup has been full of upsets. Livingston were knocked out by Alloa Athletic, who are bottom of our division, and we took care of Caledonian Thistle. It is the most open competition in years.

“This is a massive game, not just for us but for Hearts. My old team have been great all season and they are second in the Premierleague right now but they will see the Scottish Cup as their best chance of picking up silverware this season. However, that means the crowd could get a bit edgy if things don’t go Hearts way and we keep the game tight.”

Among those Murray would like to have on the edge of their seats are people he knows only too well. “Although my wife and close family have followed me in my career since leaving Hearts, I have relatives and close friends who still go to Tynecastle and they would not be too happy if my team won,” the defender, who left in 2000 to join St Johnstone before coming to Partick in 2003 but still lives in Edinburgh, said.

Yet the link with his first club is hard to sever. Murray was signed by Hearts when Joe Jordan was manager in the early 1990s and worked his way into the first-team by 1997 as an energetic full-back. “I came to Tynecastle straight from school,” he recalls. “Sandy Clark was in charge of the youth side and I got my first-team breakthrough when Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown were in charge. I spent a lot of good years there but the final in 1998 was the best moment of all.

“I stayed on the bench for the final with Rangers. You were only allowed three substitutes in the Scottish Cup in those days, so the manager put on Jim Hamilton when we led 2-0 but once Ally McCoist pulled one back for Rangers, I guess he didn’t want to take any risks with John Robertson or myself. For any team outside of the Old Firm, lifting the Scottish Cup is a big deal. We had seen what it had done for Kilmarnock just a year earlier and that motivated us.

“Hearts took a massive support to Celtic Park for the final and that inspired us. The following day, when we went round Edinburgh on an open-top bus, was incredible. People were everywhere, on top of bus shelters and up trees. It was not just Hearts fans. Even Hibernian fans turned out to see us.

I think football fans in general were happy that someone different lifted the Scottish Cup.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk