Scottish Cup Final Countdown: Levein confident Hearts can triumph

Hearts
manager Craig Levein finally got his hands on the William Hill Scottish Cup at
Hampden today. The trouble was, so did his opposite number in Saturday’s cup
final, Celtic manager Neil Lennon. The pair were speaking at a media event with
just two days to go until the big game.

Levein
referred to Celtic’s much-vaunted aim of achieving the treble treble.

 “We’re
going for the Single Single.” the Hearts boss grinned. “It’s just as important
to us.
 
“We’ve got recent history of beating Celtic. The preparation for the game in
the last two or three weeks has gone extremely well.
 
“We can beat Celtic, we’ve proven that. We’ve got a big occasion in us, I’m
certain of that. It’s about bringing our A-game at the right time and possibly
having a little bit rub of the green.”
 
“I’m confident of everybody we were worried about – other than Steven
Naismith and Olly Lee who picked up an injury against Celtic last week. The
others have done enough to make me feel that they can be useful.
 
“I still haven’t got a definitive team in my head because I need to look at the
players who haven’t played recently or trained a lot. I’m not certain they’ll
all last the 90 minutes – and it might go on longer than that.
 
“The good news is that most of our injuries have cleared up.”

“All the Hearts players to Hearts to be involved in occasions like the one on we’re involved in on Saturday. There’s no place for feeling nervous because the fact is, they all signed up to play in this type of occasion.
 
“For me, it’s excitement. That’s the overriding feeling at this minute in time and I’m sure the players are the same.”