Danny Grainger dreams of trophy glory to make up for past heartaches

MATT MCGEEHAN
Published on Saturday 10 March 2012 05:10

HEARTS defender Danny Grainger hopes this season’s William Hill Scottish Cup will have a happy ending after numerous missed opportunities.

The 25-year-old left-back is set to line-up for Hearts in today’s quarter-final clash with Clydesdale Bank Premier League rivals St Mirren at Tynecastle, seeking to advance to the semi-finals at Hampden.

Grainger has played and lost a last-four tie at the national stadium in each of the last two seasons for St Johnstone – once in the Scottish League Cup – while he was ruled ineligible for the 2006 final while at Gretna, as Hearts won the Scottish Cup.

Grainger refused to touch the trophy at the preview press conference this week, preferring to bide his time in the hope Hearts will end the competition victorious on 19 May.

“In the Scottish Cup you don’t really need a lot of motivation,” Grainger said, referring to past missed chances.

“It’s a chance to win a cup. Speaking to [Hearts team-mate] Rudi Skacel and boys who have done it here, you just want to be involved in things like that.

“The last two seasons at St Johnstone I’ve had two semi-finals and fallen short in both of them. It’s great to be in a semi-final, but I want to push on one more and try to get to that cup final.”

Grainger was denied the chance to feature in the final while a teenager at Gretna after a loan period ruled him ineligible for the latter stages of the competition. It was news he was only made aware of as Gretna were making final preparations for Hampden.

“I was on loan to Brechin and because I wasn’t available for the semi-final I wasn’t allowed to play in the final,” Grainger said. “I didn’t find out until two days before the cup final, before we were getting on the team coach to go away to the hotel. That hurt quite a lot.

“I’d only missed the semi-final and the quarter-final and had been on the bench for every other game (in the early rounds). To find out at the last hurdle that I wasn’t going to be involved was heartbreaking. I’d been through everything with Gretna from the Third Division right the way up.

“To not be involved in one of their biggest days in their history was hard for me, but it’s something you can’t dwell on or alter. To see the boys do so well but fall away just at the end was heartbreaking.”

Grainger joined Dundee United midway through Gretna’s maiden SPL campaign – and left for Perth a year before United won the cup – before their journey was ended by financial problems.

While at Gretna, Grainger was coached by Danny Lennon – now the manager at St Mirren, who lost 5-2 on their most recent trip to Tynecastle.

Grainger added: “I know Danny Lennon really well. He was my youth coach at Gretna.

“I know what he’s like. He’s very positive. He’ll talk to the boys a lot and tell them it’s a one-off game to get to Hampden.

“They will come here expecting to try to get a result and it’s down to us to stop them. We’ve got a hard game on Saturday against a St Mirren team that are doing really well. If we can get through that we’ll see how the draw looks.”

Taken from the Scotsman