Hearts star gets frank over bottom six finish and what doesn't change over Scottish Cup objectives

Craig Halkett says a bottom six finish won’t raise the stakes for Hearts in their Scottish Cup semi-final any higher than they already were.

The Jambos know they can’t clinch European football via the Premiership this season after a 0-0 draw at Motherwell. It means they will end this campaign in the bottom half after a slow start to the term, not making up enough points after that to ensure their position. Up next is a Scottish Cup semi-final with Aberdeen.

Win that, and they face Celtic or St Johnstone in the final. Go all the way and on top of glory, they will have a spot in continental football for next term. Halkett says disappointment in ML1 doesn’t heighten the need for victory, as that’s already paramount.

Scottish Cup importance

Halkett told the Evening News: “I don't think after Saturday it's any more important than what it already has been. It was always a huge game for the club. It's another opportunity that we've now lost to get back into European football. That's where the club should be ultimately and also challenging for silverware. It's a massive game. Saturday’s not changed anything in terms of what the mindset is going into next week. Whether we won today or drew or lost, we still would have been in it next week to try and win the game and get to the cup final.”

The defender gave an honest account on missing out on the top six. He added: “Hugely frustrating, disappointing. There's other words for it but at the end of the day we've not been good enough to put ourselves in the position where it went down to the last game where we had to go and win. It isn’t good enough for a club like Hearts. That's on everyone, all the players. It's been a long season, we've had 33 games to this point and to not have picked up enough points to be in the top six... Again, as I said, for a club like Hearts it is not good enough so a huge frustration is the overriding feeling.

“I think just before it turned to 90, we got the news through that St Mirren had won and we needed a goal. I think the plan was anyway if we weren't winning towards the last five-10 minutes that we were going to try and chuck a wee bit more up top. So that was the instruction to go on and just try and be a bit of a hassle for the defenders but unfortunately that never worked out. I think if we go and play the way that we know we can play, we can create more chances and hurt Motherwell. But we never did that right from the start, even during the first half. We've never created enough clear-cut chances to go and give ourselves a chance to get in the lead.”

Big game questioning

Having lost to Dundee United and then drawing with Motherwell to miss out on the top six, questions are being asked of this Hearts side’s ability to handle the big pressure games heading into the semi-final.

Halkett responded when asked if the players had enough belief to rally themselves for the huge clash: “Definitely. Performances can be good and can be pretty, but if you're not picking up points at the end of the day then it doesn't mean anything. It's different if you're maybe sitting 20 points ahead in third and you're trying to work on styles of play and you've got enough points in the bag. We don't and we didn't at the time.

“Performances, albeit they're good and it's what you want to build on, but if you're not picking up results then ultimately they're not good performances. But going into next week, we've still got belief that we can go and get to the final. We've had tight games with Aberdeen all season, so we know we can go and challenge them. We've definitely got enough in that dressing room to go and win the game and that's what everybody's plan is going to be.”