HEARTS TAKE HOME THE CUP GRETNA TAKE HOME THE GLORY

HEARTS 1

GRETNA 1

(Aet, 90mins: 1-1, Hearts win 4-2 on pens)

THEY'VE been tearing up the rule book all season. On Saturday they conjured up football's first cup final without a loser.

How fitting Hearts and Gretna should share such an unforgettable contest. For a long while it seemed as if we might even witness the greatest story in Hampden history but even though many of Gretna's players were reduced to tears asSteven Pressley claimed the Cup, the glory was theirs.

Their pain was almost palpable and even if it may gnaw away at their insides for days to come, it really matters not that they fell a couple of penalty kicks short of winning it for themselves.

To have come so close after journeying so far in such a short space of time? Well, the achievement simply beggars belief.

If they ever tried to make a movie about this club's meteoric rise from England's Unibond League it would be laughed out of town for being simply too ridiculous.

Oh that's right, Coisty, it already has. But this will not be Gretna's last Shot at Glory and although they went home without the silverware, they left Glasgow's Old Lady as winners. Each and every one.

They may even have felt unjustly treated as there is no question that, for long spells, they had Hearts on the ropes.

Make no mistake, the legs were buckling beneath Pressley and his players who turned up for the big day but without bringing a big game to the party.

Hearts were flat going forward, fragile in defence and riddled with fatigue long before ref Dougie McDonald - who can also be proud of his performance - called time on this 120-minute marathon.

And yet, in the final analysis, can anyone really say they did not deserve to end this season with silver?

As much as it was a travesty for Gretna that they were beaten in a shoot-out, it would have beena devastating injustice had these Hearts players ended the season without a trophy.

Say what you like about Vladimir Romanov and his sinister, ruthless, revolutionary style - some of us already have - but the effort his players have poured into the campaign has been little short of gargantuan.

Men such as Pressley, Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley have been a credit to themselves, the glue which has held a dressing room together each and every time Romanov threatened to do something to bring his team unstuck.

Seldom surely has there been a more deserving group of players and it would have been truly heartbreaking had Pressley not led them up the stairs as Cup winners.

They can reflect with great pride and satisfaction on a season from which they have taken as much as they have put in.

These players did not deserve to spend their summer haunted by memories of failure although they will know they came frighteningly close to Dens Park revisited.

As Gretna's belief began to soar throughout a truly pulsating second half and the Second Division minnows came surging forward, it was as if Hearts had been reduced to a state of sheer panic.

Perhaps they could visualise being dragged out of the dressing room one by one at gunpoint by their Lithuanian leader who had surrounded himself in the posh seats with the K-19 nuclear submariners, Soviet heroes of the Cold War.

Some wore hats the size of satellite dishes but it was Romanov who needed something under which to hide his embarrassment as his team went into meltdown.

It is indeed truly terrifying to ponder on how he might have reacted had Hearts self-destructed in front of the eyes of the comrades who saved their vessel from doing likewise off the coast of America.

Little wonder then that Hearts appeared paralysed by fear. They opened in typically robust fashion and for 15 minutes it seemed as if Gretna would not survive but Rowan Alexander's players got through that early powerplay by the skin of their teeth.

Then, in 16 minutes, the normally rock solid Gordon came out of his box to deal with a stray probe and made such an appalling mess of it that, suddenly, Hampden was awash with the jitters.

From the resulting corner Pressley came heart-stoppingly close to bulleting aheader into his own net.It was game on.

Just as quickly as Hearts disappeared into a thick fog of nerves, so Gretna's players were clearing their heads for the first time and sensing they might make a match of it after all. From then on their performance was - to a man - magnificent.

performance was - to a man - magnificent. When Rudi Skacel burst into their box Mark Birch came up with a textbook slide tackle to halt the Czech in his stride and all around, men in white shirts began puffing out their chests. In contrast, Hearts were retreating into their shells.

Gordon fumbled another free-kick and at the other end, Hartley's first touch failed him when he looked a shoe-in to fire the opening goal.

It was all so uncharacteristic of the players who muscled their way confidently in between the Old Firm. Gordon pulled off an excellent fingertip save to keep out a raking dead ball from Gavin Skelton who was emerging as a man of the match contender.

In fact, although Hearts broke quickly from the resulting corner, Skelton came thundering back to floor Skacel with another perfectly timed, scissoring tackle.

Not even when Skacel's sweetly executed volley at the far post edged Hearts in front eight minutes before half time did it feel as if the dream had died.

Valdas Ivanauskas' men were too unsure of themselves to grab control and they started the second half as if the final whistle could not come quickly enough.

ASteven Tosh shot ripped into Gordon's side-netting shortly before Alexander went for broke by throwing on David Graham and reshaping his side in a 3-4-3 formation.

And, in 67 minutes, Graham burst through an increasingly hesitant Hearts defence to find himself, almost unbelievably, one on one with Gordon.

Perhaps Graham ought to have unloaded there and then but he opted to take the ball around the keeper and gave Robbie Neilson the split second needed to hurl himself into a heroic tackle just as the sub was staring into an empty net.

Neilson may one day look back upon that act as his finest moment in football. But Hearts were in desperate trouble, seeing Kenny Deuchar head wide moments later and generally beginning to unravel.

Ivanuaskas threw on Michal Pospisil and Julien Brellier but not even fresh legs could stop the rot and, in 74 minutes, one last weary tackle was to hand Gretna their golden moment.

Desperation had taken hold of Deividas Cesnauskis as he stuck out a leg and brought the excellent John O'Neil tumbling down inside the Hearts box.

Ref McDonald correctly pointed to the spot and although Gordon kept out Ryan McGuffie's penalty the midfield man stabbed the ball home on the rebound to spark some of the most heartfelt and delirious celebrations of all time.

In fact, linesman Jim Lyon had flagged - presumably he felt Gordon had moved too early - as McGuffie was forcing the ball over the line but so wild were the scenes that followed there was no way for the officials to call a halt.

Instead, McDonald chose to ignore his assistant which, given Gretna had done nothing wrong, was again correct.

Hearts were teetering on the brink of collapse and only a goal-line clearance from Edgaras Jankauskas and a fresh-air swipe by Gretna captain Chris Innes, who was no more than eight yards from goal, saved them from themselves and allowed them the chance to regroup for extra time.

Skacel then rattled a post and Hartley forced Alan Main into his umpteenth fine save as the big boys finally came out to play and yet, even though they were on top at last, they still could not finish Gretna off.

The frustration was too much for Hartley who boiled over when McDonald refused to give Hearts a penalty five minutes from the end despite Main making contact with Skacel.

Hartley was booked for dissent and then in injury time saw red for lashing out at Derek Townsley.

The irony is that penalty expert Hartley watched the dramatic final act on a TV inside the tunnel, while Townsley was out there, missing Gretna's third kick. And when Skelton's effort, Gretna's fourth, cracked off the top of Gordon's bar it was finally all over.

Hampden erupted in a mighty roar of relief.Hearts'players piled on top of each other in a far corner of the field, their anxiety replaced with unbridled euphoria.

And Gretna's? Some sank to their knees, others held their head in their hands. Delirium and devastation were yards away. But there was not a loser in sight.

MATCH STATS

POSSESSION

50% 50%

SHOTS ON TARGET

8 4

SHOTS OFF TARGET

12 9

CORNERS

10 9

FOULS CONCEDED

26 22

OFF SIDES

8 5

Taken from the Daily Record