50,000 REASONS WHY JAMBOS MUST HIT THE JACKPOT

JOHN ROBERTSON insists Hearts will fill Murray field with 50,000 fans if they gatecrash the Champions League draw.

Robbo hopes the current crop of Jambos will eclipse the UEFA Cup heroics of the Tynecastle side he was part of back in 1988.

Excitement is reaching fever pitch with Hearts fans hungry for an emphatic win in the first leg of the qualifier against Siroki Brijeg tomorrow night.

Ticket sales have broken the 20,000 barrier and a club spokesman swore the figures proved the "potential Hearts have to become one of the top clubs in Europe".

And Livingston manager Robertson - who will be at the game as part of BBC television's commentary team - knows victory in this tie will pave the way for a bigger, more spectacular show.

Last night he said: "I will be as passionate a Hearts supporter as any inside the ground and I'll make no bones of the fact I want Hearts to win when I'mon the telly.

"It has to be remembered that the next stage of the qualifiers, the third and final hurdle before the first group phase, will have the potential to be the biggest European moment in Hearts' history.

"If the side can get to that stage their next home crowd will be 30,000 plus. But if they draw a group with biggies such as Real Madrid or Barcelona then a 50,000 crowd is on the cards.

"And at that point they'll have bettered what I and the guys I played with did for Hearts in the UEFA Cup."

That Hearts team, managed by Alex MacDonald, beat St Patrick's Athletic, Austria Vienna and Velez Mostar for the right to face Bayern Munich in a quarter-final that would take the winner to face Napoli in the last four.

Robbo said: "When you think that we beat the Germans in Edinburgh and were only denied an aggregate win by the width of a post when John Colquhoun hit the woodwork at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, that has to go down as the high water mark in the club's European history.

"So far, that is. Now it's this team's turn to shoot for the stars."

Ex-hitman Robbo never had to worry about goals for Hearts when he was breaking all records on his way to being enshrined as the top league scorer in the team's history with 214 strikes.

But he has reservations about who is going to score the goals that matter at Murray field tomorrow when Hearts will be without the services of Rudi Skacel and Paul Hartley.

He said: "There is a void that needs to be filled. I'm not worried about the team playing a match of this importance before the domestic season has even started.

"Modern-day players understand and adapt to the intricacies of European football's calendar.

"But where do the goals come from without Rudi and Paul?

"The team looked very resolute last week when they beat Osasuna in their friendly at Murrayfield but this really isn't about pretty football any more. Wednesday night is about getting a convincing result and nothing else.

"That's why I'll be cheering on Hearts while working as a television pundit, just as I will do for Gretna and the Old Firm when they play in Europe.

"I was disappointed that Hibs lost out to Odense at the weekend in the Intertoto Cup because I do know that the better our teams do in Europe, the better it is for our national coefficient."

The one thing television viewers won't hear from Robbo is any comparison being drawn between the side Valdas Ivanauskas picks and the one he was part of at Tynecastle.

He said: "I don't believe in making distinctions between teams from different eras. They should all be allowed to receive the recognition they deserve for what they achieved without being pitted against one another.

"The common denominator that exists between the generations is that the Hearts fans get behind them in big numbers while displaying an absolute dedication to winning before all else.

"If the fans had been told at the start of last season the club would have three managers and be in a state of turmoil at periodic intervals, there would have been panic in the streets.

"But once the Scottish Cup Final had been won against Gretna and the Old Firm had been split in the SPL the fans were well and truly satisfied because they knew they had a winning team.

"No one knows better than me that Vladimir Romanov, the club's owner, is a hard task master.

"The manager's job isn't the safest of positions, and I speak as one of those who was removed from office by him, but he has delivered results.

"But the biggest one of all has yet to come, and that's a place in the Champions League that would expose the fact Hearts are not a sleeping giant.

"They're a club with a monster fanbase that need a little more encouragement to turn out in record-breaking numbers."

Taken from the Daily Record