Hearts revel historic Scottish Cup victory

GLASGOW - Agence France-Presse

Hearts’ Darren Barr celebrates the opening goal against Hibernian during the two teams’ highly-awaited Edinburgh derby in the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park. REUTERS photo

Hearts manager Paulo Sergio described lifting the Scottish Cup as the greatest moment of his career after watching his side hammer Edinburgh rivals Hibernian 5-1 at Hampden.

The Portuguese coach became only the eight manager to win the trophy for the Tynecastle club as he masterminded victory in the first all-Edinburgh derby final since 1896.

As a manager Sergio won his side Olhanense promotion from the Portuguese Second Division and took Sporting Lisbon to the Portuguese Cup final while he won the competition as a player.

But the 44-year-old said leading his side to Scottish Cup glory against their greatest rivals capped all his other achievements.

“It was a great result and a great game for my team so I’m very proud,” Sergio said. “It’s my biggest achievement.”

Sergio, who only took charge of the Jambos in August following the dismissal of Jim Jefferies, is out of contract with the Tynecastle club, along with a host of players as Hearts look to cut their costs.

When quizzed about his future Sergio added: “I don’t know if that will be my last game in charge, we will see.

“For me it’s not winning the cup that can make me stay or not. Maybe for other people that can make the difference.

“For me there are a lot of things to speak about and we will see what will happen.

“The important thing is Hearts and a solution will be found; I’m not worried about that.”

At Hampden, hopes had been high amongst the Hibs support that their 110-year wait to win the cup would come to an end as the match kicked off in front of a capacity crowd at the national stadium.

But it was the Jambos’ fans who were celebrating in the 14th minute when Darren Barr gave them the lead before Rudi Skacel doubled their advantage 13 minutes later.

James McPake stopped Suso Santana’s shot on the line before pulling one back for Hibs in the 41st minute.
However, any hopes of a Hibs revival were extinguished 30 seconds after the restart when Hearts were awarded a penalty after Pa Kujabi saw red for pulling the shirt of Santana.

Hibs manager Pat Fenlon was sent to the stands in the 89th minute by referee Craig Thomson for making a rude gesture, seemingly aimed at the Hearts fans.

However, the Irishman, who took charge at Easter Road in November, claimed the gesture was directed to his own players.

“I made the gesture in relation to the way we were playing. We kept giving the ball away cheaply,” Fenlon said.

“It’s disappointing and I apologize to our own supporters for it. It was a desperately disappointing day for us.

“If we showed a bit more passion we might not be in the position we are in.

“We’ve got to sit down and analyze things but there’s got to be changes in the way the club is and the type of player we recruit to the club.

“You get to a cup final and you think players should be busting a gut to play but we didn’t have that today. I think that’s probably what’s wrong with the football club at the moment - a lack of desire and a lack of will to win.”