'Naismith can boost credit with Hampden history'

I can imagine thousands of Jambos had the same thought as me first thing on Monday morning and checked their work holiday calendars, following confirmation that Hearts will play European football for the third consecutive season.

The truth is, we’ve all checked months ago and have earmarked a few different dates, depending on what competition and stage Hearts enter at.

Saturday’s 4-2 win at home to Livingston confirmed that we will finish at least fourth, and without being disrespectful to the other sides below us, I’d be astonished now if we don’t finish third.

I looked round Tynecastle at 2-0 to Livingston and the thing that surprised me was just how level headed the majority of supporters were. There was no exodus to the Gorgie pubs, or verbals shouted on. There was just an expectation that Steven Naismith had to fix things.

To his credit, he did. The four goals we scored all stemmed from training ground tactics and focused attacks starting from our left-hand side.

Naismith has obviously been able to indoctrinate the team with his style of play and he needed time to do so in retrospect. With the time he’s been afforded, he’s been able to breed more confidence into the players and that has transferred into games and brought us success.

People always go on about ‘credit in the bank’ for managers and it’s fair to say that Naismith has so much of that at the moment, he’s having to set up a separate savings account.

I’m hoping we are still to reach our season’s crescendo with Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi final now being our biggest game of the season to date.

There’s no doubt that Rangers should still be the favourites to progress, despite their disappointment in Dingwall last Sunday. Everyone knows that Hearts haven’t defeated Rangers at Hampden but records are there to be broken.

It’s night and day when you contrast the feeling going into this match compared to the League Cup semi-final against the same opponents five months ago.

We go into the match with players in good form and a plethora of attacking options. I hope we really take the game to them and put Rangers under pressure right from the start.

It’s in these types of matches that cult heroes are born, I genuinely believe that they could see a new player leave Hampden with their place in Gorgie folklore secured forever more.

With the Scottish Cup celebrating its 150th year, could the club celebrating its 150th birthday be heading into the final?

Greg Playfair can be found on the @OorWeeChat Podcast.