Steven MacLean says Hearts players owe it to Craig Levein to deliver Scottish Cup

Steven MacLean has two Scottish Cup winner's medals and is desperate to make it three

The 54-year-old has spent almost four decades in professional football, but, for all his accomplishments as a player and a manager, he has so far been unable to get his hands on silverware.

MacLean, who has huge respect for his manager, is determined to alter that scenario when Hearts face Celtic in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden today. The veteran former St Johnstone striker, who boasts two Scottish Cup winners’ medals, believes Levein’s devotion to Hearts deserves to be crowned with glory at the end of a campaign in which he has endured a serious health scare as well as some scathing criticism from pundits and supporters.

“I spoke to him leading up to the League Cup semi-final and I never knew he hadn’t won anything as a manager or a player until he said that,” said MacLean. “He had a great career and played at a World Cup. He’s had a far better career than me but this could be my third Scottish Cup.

“If you look at it like that it makes you realise how lucky you are.

“It would be extra special for us if we could win it for him because he’s the one who has brought us all to this club. Even the young lads he’s had a part in with his role as director of football, he has helped bring them up. I think he has had a hand in bringing every single player here to this club so it would be nice for us to pay him back with a Scottish Cup win.”

MacLean admits it has been tough seeing his manager subjected to intense criticism amid a poor run of league over the past six months.

“When you’re walking off at Tynecastle and he’s getting a bit of stick it should hurt us, it certainly hurts me,” he said. “He brought me to the club and it is not nice to hear your manager getting a bit of stick. I am 100 per cent sure the other lads will want to do it for the manager as well.”

MacLean, who won the Scottish Cup with Rangers in 2003 and St Johnstone in 2014, has been gripped by excitement all week and is desperate to get out on to the Hampden turf this afternoon. “I’m buzzing for it,” he said. “These are the games you want to play in, and having experienced it before I know I will be ready and calm for the game but this week I have been buzzing and really looking forward to it.

“People have been putting up pictures of Hearts teams from the past winning it, with the anniversaries. I also got a couple of messages because it was St Johnstone’s five-year anniversary the other day and I was looking back on the pictures thinking ‘it would be special if I could do that again’.”

MacLean scored the second goal in the final at Celtic Park five years ago as St Johnstone won 2-0 against a high-flying Dundee United side featuring Liverpool and Scotland left-back Andy Robertson. “There was never a minute when I thought we weren’t going to win the Scottish Cup that week,” MacLean said. “We had the Indian sign over them. But they maybe fancied themselves and they had the bigger crowd.

“But it’s going to be 50-50 this weekend. We can use both sets of fans to our advantage. We hope to get our own fans with us if we start well while if we can go in front we can frustrate the Celtic fans. They could maybe turn against them.”

MacLean is hopeful that Hearts can capitalise on any tension among the Celtic players as they attempt to make history by securing the final leg of an unprecedented domestic treble-treble. “Yeah, and we can add to that pressure,” said MacLean when asked if nerves may be a factor for Neil Lennon’s side. “It is important to realise that there are key points in a game. The first 20 minutes is important – how you start the game, and how you impose yourself. After that it’s whether you can get a lead. Can you get the Celtic fans nervous or turning against them? We could then turn that to our advantage. We have experienced it with our fans, so can we get our fans excited and can they lift us? They can help us. But it is important that we do the right things to get our fans on side and get the Celtic fans against their team. That can drive us on.”

MacLean has shown signs of a return to form in recent weeks after dropping out of the side midway through the season. Asked to assess his first term at Tynecastle, the 36-year-old said: “I’d say I started well, but the middle was not great and I was left out of the squad. But I feel like I’m getting back to something like my early season form. I’d say my own form has mirrored the team this season. Some good, some bad and some terrible.”

None of the difficulties of this season will matter a jot to MacLean if he is basking in the glory of a third Scottish Cup triumph of his career come teatime. “If we win, I have said to the wife she won’t see me until we go on holiday on the Wednesday,” he said. “I’ll meet them at the airport!”