Steven Naismith has backed his Hearts team to learn from past Hampden experiences ahead of Sunday’s return to the national stadium.
Rangers once again stand between the Jambos and another shot at Scottish Cup glory, and the boss is confident the men in maroon can draw on the experience of facing Rangers in November’s last Hampden meeting in the Viaplay Cup semi-final.
Hearts have racked up a significant amount of Premiership points since then and advanced through a series of challenging Scottish Cup ties. Naismith pointed to the need for cool heads come Sunday.
“It’s another game on our journey,” he told the media ahead of the game.
“Yes, it gets you to a final and another step closer to winning a trophy, but, we look at the team’s form, the style of play, and what they like to do. Their form probably isn’t what they’d want it to be at this crucial time of the season.
“It’s a cup game though and that always changes things up. They’re a direct team that likes to play the ball forward and try to pick up the second balls. That’s a lot of what they’ve done since the new manager came in.
“We’re in a good position off the back of two good results and can go to Hampden with a lot of confidence. Time and belief in what we’re doing has been the biggest factor behind that.
“Since I’ve been here as a player, we’ve done well and gotten to the later stages of competitions. The one thing that’s missing now is going on to win one. The games are hard and it’s all about having calm heads to get through those moments.
“We’ve learned from mistakes in the past this season and hopefully we can do that again on Sunday. We’re a much different team than the last semi-final. Our forms been excellent since December.
“The next stage is getting on to win trophies, it’s all I’m thinking about. We want that opportunity to win that trophy. It’s good making two semi-finals, it’s even better winning them.
“It’s a cup game though and that always changes things up. They’re a direct team that likes to play the ball forward and try to pick up the second balls. That’s a lot of what they’ve done since the new manager came in.
“We’re in a good position off the back of two good results and can go to Hampden with a lot of confidence. Time and belief in what we’re doing has been the biggest factor behind that (coming from behind to win for the third time this season)
“Since I’ve been here as a player, we’ve done well and gotten to the later stages of competitions. The one thing that’s missing now is actually going on to win one. The games are hard and it’s all about having calm heads to get through those moments.
“We’ve learned from mistakes in the past this season and hopefully we can do that again on Sunday. We’re a much different team than the last semi-final. Our forms been excellent since December.
“The next stage is getting on to win trophies, it’s all I’m thinking about. We want that opportunity to win that trophy. It’s good making two semi-finals, it’s even better winning them.”
