Final verdicts focus on change as rivals consider next steps

THERE was a valedictory feel to Hearts' celebrations last night after they secured the second trophy of the Vladimir Romanov era.

The club's Lithuanian owner plans to restructure the club with a younger, cheaper squad next season and the goodbyes were led by Rudi Skacel after he scored the two goals which embellished the first all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup final since 1896.

"Probably it is my last game and it is the best way to say goodbye, with the cup in my hands," said the Czech midfielder, who has interested Celtic in the past. "I'm 99% certain it is my last game for Hearts. We won the big derby and showed everybody there's only one team in Edinburgh. All you can ask for is to finish this way."

Skacel also scored, of course, during the 2006 final win against Gretna, moving to Southampton shortly afterwards. It will be a similar story for the 32-year-old this summer, although he was coy about his eventual destination.

"You can't compare this with 2006," he said. "I don't know where I will go now, but I hope it's a nice challenge for myself. It probably won't be back to the Czech Republic."

Also outstanding on the occasion of his final game for the club was Ian Black, even if he was fortunate not to face action after catching Leigh Griffiths in an early aerial challenge.

"It is the greatest day of my life," Black said. "You dream as a kid of doing something like this and it's happened for me."

Whether it is also manager Paulo Sergio's last game in charge remains to be seen. The former Sporting Lisbon manager is out of contact as of now and Mr Romanov was tight-lipped when asked about it pre-match. Sergio wasn't able to shed too much light on the situation either, although he did hint that budgets would come into consideration.

"It is not a moment to be speaking about my future," Sergio said. "I don't know if it is my last game. It is not winning the cup or not winning the cup that can make me stay or not, there are a lot of things to talk about. The important thing is Hearts. It was great to see the joy of all our supporters, and my family were in the stands."Andrew Driver, who showed signs of his old self on the left, was one pleading for continuity.

"We have had some decent teams in the last few seasons, but with us changing all the time we have not managed to get some consistency," Driver said. "Hopefully he [Sergio] will stay here, but we might struggle to keep hold of him now."

It was also a good day for the Barr family, what with Darren opening the scoring with his first goal, and justifying the money his brother John and father, also John, had staked on that eventuality at odds of 50-1. "Was it 50/1?" he said. "Happy days for my dad then."

Meanwhile, Hibernian manager Pat Fenlon denied that he had gestured to the Hearts fans prior to being sent to the stands late on by referee Craig Thomson, and said that a policeman had contradicted the official explanation that the decision had been taken on police advice.

"I didn't get to speak to the referee, he was the last person I wanted to speak to," Fenlon said. "It was frustration with the way we are playing. The referee said it was the police, but I spoke to the police who said they had nothing to do with it, so it is disappointing."

Fenlon did not sugercoat his teams shortcomings and hinted at changes to their signing policy. "We have to sit down and analyse it, but obviously there has to be changes to the type of player we recruit to the club," he said. "You would think players would be busting a gut to play, but we didn't have that today. That's probably what's wrong at the moment, lack of desire and will to win."

Taken from the Herald