Hartley's heroics written in the Hampden stars

PAUL Hartley kept a self-appointed date with destiny yesterday, shattering one of his former employers with a career-best performance he knew was going to happen from the moment he awoke in Hearts' Glasgow hotel.

Before the Tynecastle club's team bus even began to make its way through the city to be greeted by a sea of maroon on the approaches to Hampden, the Scotland midfielder had convinced himself the national stadium was going to be his stage for the day.

There was never any prospect of Hartley fluffing his lines, as he conjured up the first hat-trick of his footballing life at any level of football and generally pulled the strings in his team's 4-0 dismantling of Hibs in the Tennent's Scottish Cup semi-final.

"I don't want to sound stupid here, but I looked in the mirror this morning and told myself it was going to be my day," said Hartley. "It's the first hat-trick I've ever scored, even in boys club football.

"It just doesn't get any better than this, to score a hat-trick and win 4-0 against Hibs. It's not really sunk in yet. We just had a feeling in the camp all week that it was going to be our day and it was."

Hartley has now scored six times against Hibs this season and admits to a special sense of relish in performing well against the club with whom he endured a miserable period earlier in his career. "I think the derbies mean more to me because I used to play for Hibs," he said. "I do get really hyped up for them. My time at Hibs was terrible but over the last couple of seasons I've proved that I didn't really do myself justice there. Since I've joined Hearts, everything has gone right for me.

"That was for the Hearts supporters today, because they have been fantastic with me from day one at the club. When we rolled into Hampden at about 10.30 this morning, there were already thousands of them there and you could just sense from the atmosphere that it was going to be our day."

Hartley's hat-trick showcased everything which has made him one of the country's most effective midfielders over the past two seasons. His first was the result of a trademark run and finish in a sweeping counter-attack, the second a brilliantly struck free-kick and the third a sweetly taken penalty.

"I couldn't have hit the free-kicks any better than I did today," he said. "He [Zbigniew Malkowski] pulled off a couple of great saves for the first two, but at the third one I saw him just edging over and leaving the gap there. He obviously thought I was going to try and play it across the penalty area. I went for it and although he got a hand to it, thankfully for me it went in.

"Everything went for us today, especially for me. I take the penalties in any case, so there wasn't going to be any argument about who would take it. Big Edgaras Jankauskas actually told me to try and chip the keeper with it, but I didn't have the bottle for that.

"I just can't wait for the final, it will be the first one of my career. I'm really looking forward to 13 May, although we have a lot of hard league games coming up before then."

Hartley was referring to the club's remaining seven Premierleague matches, when Hearts will try to hold on to second place. "Getting into the Champions League next season is top of the agenda, definitely, and it has been since the start of this campaign," he added.

"We don't want to let things slip, we are in a cup final but that's another month away and now we want to finish second. We've got a difficult game on Wednesday night [against Celtic] but we go into the game with confidence."

The only thing that threatened to spoil Hearts' party yesterday was the worrying neck injury sustained by their Portuguese defender Jose Goncalves following an accidental clash with his own goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

Goncalves was unconscious for several minutes but that did not spare Craig Gordon a caution from referee Stuart Dougal for failing to restart the match quickly enough as he tended his stricken colleague.

"I knew right away I had hit Jose right in the face with my shoulder very hard," said the Scotland No 1. "He was lying there with his eyes wide open, just staring straight ahead. I couldn't waken him, so I was a bit worried.

"He was unconscious for several minutes. Thankfully he is all right now and was up and walking about in the dressing room after the game.

"I don't know if the booking was harsh, these things happen. I don't think Stuart Dougal realised how serious it was. He told me I'm not a medical person, to get on with the game and he's quite right. I spoke to him again after the game and we had a laugh about it, so there's no big deal there.

"It was actually a hard-fought victory despite the scoreline, with possibly not that many goals in it, but we'll take it no problem. You want to beat Hibs every time you play them. We know that's not possible, but the result was all important today. The scoreline didn't really matter. The most important thing for us now is to recover from today and get ready for Celtic at Parkhead on Wednesday because it's a hugely important game for us."

Hearts must face that match without their captain Steven Pressley, who was substituted at half-time after suffering a head injury in a collision with Hibs' Moroccan striker Abdessalam Benjelloun.

"It was my second bout of mild concussion in a week, after the Falkirk game last Saturday, so I won't be allowed to play against Celtic," said Pressley. "I was angry with the doctor at first because I wanted to play on but my health is more important than any game of football and he made the right call.

"I'm just so proud today to be the captain of this football club and I can't wait for the final."

Taken from the Scotsman