This day will be remembered for 100 years says Rudi Skacel

May 19 2012

HEARTS midfielder Rudi Skacel was left celebrating a "memorable" achievement after his side won the William Hill Scottish Cup final with a commanding 5-1 victory over fierce rivals Hibernian.

In the first all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup final since 1896, Darren Barr and Skacel put Hearts 2-0 ahead before James McPake pulled one back.

But Danny Grainger converted a penalty conceded by Pa Kujabi, who was sent off for a second bookable offence, and Ryan McGowan added a fourth before Skacel struck a fifth as Hearts extended their unbeaten run to 11 games against Hibs, who remain without a Scottish Cup win since 1902.

Skacel told Sky Sports: "This day will probably be remembered for a long time, for another 100 years. I'm so happy - we're taking the cup home.
hearts, scottish cup final

"Every trophy is fantastic. This was the derby and we beat our rivals in the final."

Grainger feels manager Paulo Sergio deserves credit for his part in Hearts' success.

"Words can't describe it, to be honest," he said.

"We always knew we were the better team, we knew that from the start. I can't explain how much it means to me, my family and all the lads as well.

"Things have been difficult for us on and off the pitch so a lot of credit goes to Paulo."
hearts, scottish cup final, paolo sergio

Sergio himself added: "It's fantastic. The players deserve this more than anybody so I'm very happy with that performance."

Midfielder Ian Black, who is leaving Hearts at the end of the season, was proud to end on a winning note.

"It's perfect, outstanding, unbelievable," he said.

"I came here to the final to bow out with a win. I'm speechless.

"It was a tough game but we knew if we went about our business in the right way we could do that to them.

"At this moment it's the greatest day of my life. You dream as a kid of doing something like this and it's happened for me."

Hibs' misery was compounded when manager Pat Fenlon was sent to the stand late on for gesturing to the Hearts fans, who had been singing his name.

And he admitted they were beaten by the better team.

"I'm desperately disappointed," Fenlon said. "We didn't turn up, we didn't shine, we didn't deserve to win the game. We didn't show anything.

"The club has been like this for a while. There's no desire and we've got to change the players to change the outlook of the club.

"I apologise to the fans for having to sit and watch that. We'll work as hard as we can to turn things around."

Taken from the Daily Record