Scottish Communities League Cup: Gary Locke could write himself into Hearts folklore but still lose his job

By Roddy Forsyth

10:35PM GMT 15 Mar 2013

Mind you, the same could have been said of Paulo Sergio last season, when he masterminded Hearts’ 5-1 thrashing of Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final only to return, unemployed, to his native Portugal within days.

Hearts now have the opportunity to win successive cup finals inside the space of 10 months – and with three men in charge during that brief period. Sergio was followed by John McGlynn, who departed on Feb 28, hence Locke’s current situation as interim manager, as though there were any other sort away up in Gorgie.

When it was put to him that winning a trophy can be the kiss of death for a coach at the club – because of the autocratic style of Vladimir Romanov, the majority shareholder – Locke chose to sing a cheery tune.

“We’re being really positive about it. We’re looking forward to the game,” said the man who was a favourite of the Tynie fans in his days as nine years as a midfielder there.

“John played a huge part in getting the club this far, and hopefully we can get the right result for him. It’s all about him as far as I’m concerned. I haven’t bounced ideas off him but I have spoken to him.

“I’m delighted that he’s going to be at the game. All the credit goes to John and it’s a bit embarrassing for me to be here when he’s got us to the cup final, but that’s football.

“He’s reassured me that I should go out and enjoy it. That’s the mark of the man. He’s a fantastic individual and when he left he said to me to try and make the most of it. That’s what we’ve tried to do.”

Locke, though, has not kept faith with McGlynn’s preferred system, switching from 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2 which appears to have energised the players and which has proved decidedly popular with the support. “I’ve made a couple of changes, but I don’t think I’ve made too many,” he said.

“We’ve been unlucky in a lot of games this season, created a lot of chances and not taken them – and that’s the reason we’ve lost football matches – but over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a wee bit of luck, and scored a couple of goals against St Johnstone, so that breeds confidence.”

Hearts are a single point ahead of the Buddies in the SPL table, having played a game more, but, although Ryan Stevenson is back from suspension, they have lost important players through injury, such as David Templeton, Andy Driver and Marius Zaliukas. Locke has gone with the forward partnership of John Sutton and Michael Ngoo since he succeeded McGlynn and the three games Hearts have played since then have yielded, in succession, a loss, a win and a draw.

Having said that, had the match officials seen Leigh Griffiths’s free-kick cross the goal line in last week’s Edinburgh derby, Hearts would be in this final off the back of five defeats from six fixtures. Locke, who instinctively plays a straight bat to most questions, insisted that the final had not particularly animated his players in training this week.

“They’ve had that edge all season. We’ve played well in a lot of games and unfortunately we’ve not taken our chances and one or two wee breaks haven’t gone for us,” he said. “But in the last couple of games the performances have picked up a bit and the results have improved.”

Last time Hearts met St Mirren they lost 2-0 – the result that precipitate McGlynn’s departure the following day – but the Tynecastle side have the larger and noisier support behind them.

The Jam Tarts have not won this trophy in 51 years but they will be animated by a return to the scene of last year’s demolition derby, as Locke reflected when asked if he enjoyed visits to Hampden Park.

“I love it,” he replied. “It means you’ve been successful. We had a great time in May and hopefully we can have another good day on Sunday.”

Taken from telegraph.co.uk