ROBBIE NEILSON swept up rubbish at Tynecastle the last time a Hearts team became legends by lifting the Scottish Cup.

Now the Jambos star is looking ahead to the biggest week of his life with today's semi-final against Hibs followed by an SPL showdown with Celtic on Wednesday.

And he reckons delivering another clean sweep in these two massive matches can propel him to the same legendary status as the heroes of 1998 whose boots he used to polish.

Neilson was on the groundstaff when goals from Colin Cameron and Stephane Adam sealed a memorable 2-1 triumph over Rangers at Parkhead. And he said: "I've seen first hand what an achievement like that can do for a club.

"I didn't really have anything to do with the win but it was a nice period to be around.

"I remember going through to the final with the other young boys in one of the buses laid on by the club. It was nice to soak it up.

"But you would always rather be playing and now we have our chance. In 98 we had a lot of good players and a few of them went on to even greater things.

"But for the majority that would probably be the highlight of their careers. So when the chance comes you have to take it.

"I speak to Stephane now he's coming back to the club for games and the fans worship him after scoring that Cup Final goal.

"The incentive is there for us against Hibs. It's massive but every game has been massive lately with us chasing the Champions League.

"There will be no major celebrations if we win because as soon as that's finished we'll have to focus on Celtic.

"I can't think of a week as big as this in my career but you'd rather have pressure than play meaningless matches. The next few games could make or break our season. If we beat Hibs, Celtic then Dunfermline it's a fantastic boost. But defeats could break us."

Neilson has won his race to be fit for today's crunch after intensive physio on his ankle. A small knock like that was never going to stop him after all Hearts have had to overcome this season.

They've managed to maintain high standards amid the sacking of TWO managers and a chief executive plus the widely publicised interference of owner Vladimir Romanov in team selection.

At most clubs such a soap opera would have derailed the campaign but this group of players learned to endure all sorts of setbacks long before Romanov swept to power.

Neilson said: "There was a TV crew in making a video of the season the other day and with the twists and turns it could be a bestseller.

"And it's not finished yet. If they took their script to Hollywood they'd be sent home as the plot is unrealistic.

"But it HAS happened, we need to deal with it and hopefully we'll put a good ending on the story.

"It would be a great achievement to win a trophy and a Champions League place.

The fact we have been through off-the-field turmoil in the last few years prepared the players for this season.

"With the financial problems a couple of years ago and protests about the sale of the stadium it steeled us for what's going on now.

"We've experienced quite a bit and there's probably no other squad that could have been better prepared. Big games like this can only be good because you just concentrate on football."

Taken from the Sunday Mail