WINNING the Tennent’s Scottish Cup meant so much to Hearts that they felt no need to restrain themselves in their celebrations. They jumped, danced and sang at the end of an extraordinary game which exhausted them to the point of collapsing with cramp.

If it might have seemed almost crass to make such a big deal about a desperate win over a Second Division team, then it also served as a reminder that Hearts are a big club who have been starved of silverware. This was only the second trophy any Hearts fan under 40 has ever seen the club win. Having applauded Gretna as they collected their runners-up medals – the whole country must have felt like doing the same – Hearts airbrushed the stress from their day to throw themselves into party mode.

Nothing was more revealing about this game than the fact that at the end it seemed natural to be looking towards the losers rather than the winners. While Hearts went off on their lap of honour, the inclination was to look at Brooks Mileson, Rowan Alexander and the Gretna players with a mixture of sympathy and admiration. Just when the storyline seemed to have become predictable, and having survived an early onslaught they conceded a 38th-minute Rudi Skacel goal, Gretna then raised their game to an unimaginable level.

After elbowing back into the game at the end of the first half they surged into contention in an almighty second period and scored the equaliser that took a paralysed Hearts into stoppage time. That came and went with blows being traded too, and when Paul Hartley was sent-off for a second booking on 119 minutes, kicking Derek Townsley after an earlier booking for dissent, Hearts were heading for a penalty shoot-out without their first-choice taker. The kicks even took place at what passed for the Gretna end. Hampden was bracing itself for the story to end all stories.

The large team struggle for credit in these circumstances but Hearts’ reacted with a series of exemplary penalties. Steven Pressley, Robbie Neilson, Skacel and Michal Pospisil scored easily past the outstanding goalkeeper, Alan Main, and although James Grady and Mark Birch also converted Gretna’s capacity for drama had run out. Townsley’s soft kick was saved and then Gavin Skelton smacked his off the top of the bar which meant Hearts had the cup. Even so, Gretna were last night entitled to refer to themselves as winners too. Their victory was in stretching this into a contest which slowly sucked the confidence out of Hearts and made it only the second Scottish Cup final to be decided on penalties.

Gretna had been forced into almost permanent encampment in their own half for most of the first half hour and just as they began to peek out of their shell any optimism was extinguished by the concession of the opener. As is so often the case when a small team falls behind to a stronger rival, thorough and professional preparation was undone by the most routine of goals. Robbie Neilson’s long throw sailed into the box and Chris Innes, under pressure from Edgaras Jankauskas, could only only glance the ball into the path of Skacel at the back post. His volley sent the ball back across goal to beat Main.

Hearts had begun with characteristic verve. Deividas Cesnauskis had Main beaten in the seventh minute only for his shot to hit the post and Bruno Aguiar was close, too, with an effort which deflected off Mark Birch to fly inches over the crossbar. Having taken the lead just before it, the half-time interval afforded Hearts the apparent luxury of contemplating a comfortable second-half freewheel towards victory in a cup final.

Even as impressive a manager as Alexander could not have anticipated how events actually unfolded. The likelihood of his side playing their best football in the closing half hour, when all the evidence suggested a team including six players over 30 would be more likely to struggle in that phase, seemed inconceivable. Yet Gretna not only sensed the growing nervousness among Hearts, but also capitalised on it with a series of moves which menaced Gordon’s goal.

Gretna had gambled in the 54th minute by replacing Davie Nicholls with David Graham, a forward on for a midfielder, and switching to 3-4-3. This had seemed an irrelevance at the time but it pinned Hearts back and changed the pattern of play.

They had frustrated, intercepted and broken up Hearts’ moves from the start, but now they were breaking out and pressing too. Graham might quickly have scored when he waltzed through the centre of the defence and round Gordon for an apparent tap-in, only to be denied by Neilson’s tremendous saving tackle. That infused the Gretna support with hope, and there was more when Kenny Deuchar had a chance at the back post only to head wide. Oddly, Deuchar was anonymous.

For once Gretna turned to their number eight, not nine, for their equaliser. Cesnauskis stuck a leg across John O’Neil to bring him down – a clear penalty – and Hampden froze at this unexpected twist. McGuffie’s run-up was hurried and unconvincing and Gordon got down to make the save. But McGuffie was lucky because the rebound fell for him and he rammed it into the other side of the net.

Hearts responded with the kind of panicky pressure typical of a heavy favourite running the risk of embarrassment. Skacel came close to connecting with a cross in front of an open goal and Hartley, busy but unable to fully impose himself , jabbed a shot over. Gretna’s emergence was typified by a McGuffie chance when Birch played him down the channel only for Gordon to race out and block him for a corner.

The final had entered an absorbing period in which there was recklessness with chances being created and squandered. Hearts came closer, Skacel hitting a post and later igniting penalty claims when he clipped Main on the way past the goalkeeper, who was innocent, but Gretna, far from overrun, kept Hearts on their toes at the back too. It was destined for penalties, and tears.

On a day when Gretna threatened to monopolise all the credit, Hearts deserve their due for showing the mental reserves to see it through. Hibs and the Old Firm may tease them about how Gretna showed them up. This morning, though, Hearts are reacquainted with that delicious knowledge that possession of the silverware is the ultimate last word.

Taken from the Sunday Herald