O'Neil has high hopes of third time lucky

Not that Gretna’s millionaire owner was anywhere nearby. Mileson preferred to remain in Scotland and trust Rowan Alexander’s team to bond sensibly at their three-day training camp in Spain, where a round of golf and a couple of beers were allowed.

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It was all in stark contrast to O’Neil’s first Scottish Cup final with Dundee United 15 years ago, when he was stuck in the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews but forbidden from setting foot on the sacred links.

“Jim McLean did not allow that,” O’Neil explained, in recalling how the man who managed Dundee United for 23 years, and was the chairman for seven more, never let his players off the leash.

O’Neil is 34 now and capable of being treated like an adult but the veteran midfield player hopes that Alexander allows him the chance to create the biggest Scottish Cup final shock and erase the pain of two cup final defeats.

O’Neil has walked out of Hampden Park with a loser’s medal in 1991, after Dundee United’s 4-3 defeat by Motherwell, and then in 2001 when Hibernian lost 3-0 to Celtic. Neither occasion is too fondly remembered by the classy playmaker, who won a Scotland cap five years ago in his time at Easter Road, but who only arrived at Gretna four months ago in the transfer window when Falkirk could not offer him enough playing time in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague.

O’Neil has flourished. Few in the Bell’s Scottish League second division can keep up with a man whose mind is always a step ahead of his markers, while in the semi-final win against Dundee, he ran the show. “It is a bit of a surprise to be here,” he admitted this week as the relaxed Gretna squad held an informal press day out on the Raydale Park pitch, under the Borders sunshine.

“I was not getting enough games at Falkirk and I asked John Hughes [the manager] in the transfer window if I could get away. At my age, you just want to play regularly. The only thing on my mind was getting back to playing. I never thought for a minute that I would end up in the Scottish Cup final. It is incredible.”

O’Neil’s career, though, has been full of surprises. Just as that Scotland cap came out of the blue, so too did his first Hampden experience in 1991. Then, he was a highly-rated teenager who helped Dundee United to the final by playing in every round. When it came to Hampden, however, O’Neil was inexplicably left out and had to make do with being a substitute.

“I did not get any warning that I was going to be left out,” he recalls. “Jim McLean just read out the team when we got to Hampden. That was his way. I was nearly in tears. We stayed at the Old Course before the final but we didn’t play golf. I was only 19 so you don’t think too much about things, they just happen to you.

“I sat on the bench and came on at half-time. I scored our second goal but we lost 4-3. It was difficult to take. Looking back now, it is hard to remember all that happened that day. Finals really do pass you by so quickly, especially if you lose. You only really remember it if you are a winner.”

O’Neil scored the winner in the semi-final when Hibernian beat Livingston in 2001 but came up against a Celtic side hungry, almost preordained for a Treble success in Martin O’Neill’s first season. “I suppose you could call them bad memories since I never picked up a winner’s medal but getting to a final is an achievement in itself, especially for a second division side like Gretna.

“This time, it feels much different. We are a far more relaxed team than the ones at Dundee United and Hibernian. I don’t know if that is to do with my age but all the boys agree that we feel under no pressure at all. That’s for Hearts to worry about.

“One or two of the younger lads have asked what the finals are like and what you do on the day and I realise that they are now looking up to me the way I did to David Narey or Maurice Malpas when I was at United. They were a big influence on calming our nerves. They never seemed to have any so why should we.”

That 1991 final, of course, is remembered as a classic. Perhaps it had something to do with the lack of an Old Firm presence. O’Neil would love to believe that this one would be the same, but realises for that to happen, Gretna have got to score against Hearts and O’Neil knows that most of the country will be cheering on Alexander’s underdogs.

“I hope it is a classic,” he smiled. “I think the neutrals around the country will be backing us but some — maybe in our division — would like to see us fall flat on our faces. We think we can cause an upset and it will help that we’ve 12,000 fans at Hampden. The ticket sales here have been fantastic. There is great interest in this game from outside Scotland because we’re the fairytale side.

“But we don’t expect Hearts to treat us lightly. In fact, they will probably try to play against us they way they do to Celtic and Rangers. We expect them to have a lot of possession and we’ll have to close them down as much as we can. The longer it goes at 0-0, the more we have a chance. Then, the nerves would start to tell on Hearts. I just hope we do ourselves justice.

“There is a belief that we can beat Hearts but we also know they will be right down our throats, that’s their style.”

At least O’Neil will not have to put up with any of his colleagues putting anything down their own throats. His former Dundee United team-mate, John Clark, regularly used to make himself sick before big games to ensure he played better. “I don’t know if you could call it a final routine,” O’Neil said, “but it certainly happened enough.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk