Halkett says Gorgie men deserve to be hailed for campaign

CRAIG HALKETT insists Hearts should be proud of their achievements in their first season back in Scottish football’s top flight despite falling at the hands of Rangers in the Scottish Cup final.

The Tynecastle outfit just couldn’t keep up with their Ibrox rivals as the Hampden showdown went into extra-time and eventually lost out to goals from Ryan Jack and Scott Wright.

However, central defender Halkett believes there should be no reason for anyone in maroon to feel downhearted at the end of a campaign which began with the squad being seriously rebuilt by manager Robbie Neilson.

‘It’s tough,’ he said. ‘We are really disappointed but I think in a few hours’ time or a few days’ time, when we look back and reflect, we can all be proud of ourselves for the season we’ve had with coming straight back up from the Championship, finishing third, guaranteeing the club European football and reaching the cup final.

‘It’s disappointing not to go all the way and win it but we gave it a good go. We took it to extra time but Rangers had too much on the day.’

Halkett also believes that the Gorgie outfit gave as good as they got throughout the 90 minutes at Hampden, but concedes they began to run out of gas towards the end against a Rangers side which went through 120 minutes against Germans Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League final in Seville in midweek.

‘There was clearly not much between the teams over the 90 minutes,’ said Halkett. ‘We had a game plan and stuck to it very well.

‘We limited Rangers to a few chances and we had a couple of chances ourselves. Big Ellis (Simms) had a right good chance and he was unlucky at the start.

‘Craig Gordon only really had two or three saves to make in the game, but it went to extra-time and they got the first goal from the corner. ‘We defended the first ball, but it was a great strike from Jack at the edge of the box. It seemed to deflate us. ‘Once they get the second goal, we started to chase it a wee bit and the boys started to get a bit tired.’