Football: Hampden apperance is not my final act, says McCann

FORMER Hearts star Neil McCann has no intention of simply winding his career down at Falkirk – and he believes winning the Scottish Cup would be just reward for the ambition shown by the club.

The Bairns take on Rangers tomorrow in the showpiece finale to the season at Hampden Park and go into the game as massive underdogs against the team crowned SPL champions last weekend.

However, McCann believes that John Hughes' side is packed with enough ambition, enthusiasm and more importantly, experience, to pull off a memorable victory against the Ibrox men.

The 34-year-old knows he may not have too many more opportunities to add winner's medals to his collection and that scenario is the same for team-mates Steven Pressley, Jackie McNamara and Lee Bullen but McCann hopes that the benefit of having been over the course before, combined with the youthful element that runs through the rest of the team, can give his side the edge over Walter Smith's side.

The winger said: "It's really nice at this stage of your career to have such a big game to look forward to. I came to Falkirk with ambition, not to start winding down my career.

"I came here with the hope that, with the kind of attitude and style that the gaffer has installed here, that we could achieve things.

"Obviously we would have loved to have been a little bit further up the league and it was a nail-biting way to end the campaign, but the pressure that it takes off is just immense, there's a great relief. Maybe you're getting to your early 30s and start to wonder how many more days there will be like this and for Jackie McNamara, Lee Bullen, Steven Pressley and myself it makes the occasion even more special.

"We're all looking forward to it. We know that we're not getting any younger but none of us need any extra motivation, we are all individually driven, that's why you're a footballer and you play the game to win things.

"Now we've got European football, we've been in the semi-final of one cup and hopefully we can go even better this time around by winning this one."

Being one of the older heads in the camp and, having won his first Scottish Cup with Hearts in 1998, then picked up a further four in five years while at Ibrox, McCann will be able to pass a wealth of knowledge and reassurance to the younger players and he's hoping that they can all pull in the same direction to lift the cup tomorrow.

"Hopefully, we can help the younger boys a bit and maybe help them through the occasion because we've been over the course.

"But we've got a lot of talented kids at this club. They're all as ambitious and driven as I was as a kid and sometimes it ends up being them that drag you through with their enthusiasm.

"Hopefully we can all pull together this weekend and end up winning the cup."

Former Dunfermline and Sheffield Wednesday player Bullen believes that success against Rangers would be a welcome bonus for his side after surviving the drop to the First Division last Saturday following their 1-0 victory over Inverness in a nail-biting match at the Caledonian stadium.

The defender conceded that ensuring the bread and butter of SPL football for next season was more important than the cup match but reckons that lifting the trophy would be just reward for the club's players and supporters for the backing and effort that they have put in.

"Last week was a much bigger match for us in the grand scheme of things if I am being honest, surviving in the SPL was much more important for the players, the staff and for the supporters," Bullen said. "Anything we do in the cup now will be a bonus for us.

"The relief is out of the way now and we have had three or four right good days down in Sunderland using their facilities and I think that it has really benefited us.

"We have just got to concentrate now and make sure that we go out there and really enjoy it."

Bullen revealed that the spirit amongst the Bairns players is second to none right now – but that it could have all been so different is they hadn't manage to avoid the drop.

He added: "On Sunday morning when we got on the bus to head down to Sunderland, we were just talking about how different the emotions would have been for us if we had gone down.

"It would probably have been the last thing in the world that we would have been looking forward to.

"I remember Middlesbrough reaching the FA Cup final the year that they were relegated and I will always remember the images of Juninho sitting on the pitch having gone through the wringer.

"To have a cup final to still go out and play in a cup final would have been horrible, but thankfully it hasn't worked out that way for us and now we can go out and make the most of it."

Like McCann, Bullen acknowledged the fact that Cup finals may be few and far between at this stage of his career and that he will savour every minute of the match. Despite criticism that the team and manager have received this season it could yet turn out to be one of the most successful that the club has ever enjoyed and Bullen continued: "It's a great day, no matter if you are an old codger like me or a 21-year-old like a lot of the lads that we have at the club.

"Days like this don't tend to come along too often in your career and it's important to go out there and enjoy it.

"I would have said that after the play-off final with Sheffield Wednesday, I didn't think that there would be too many more chances for me.

"But you can never say never, I have got another year's contract at Falkirk and this year we have been in the semi-final of one competition and the final of the other so it hasn't worked out too bad.

"As statistics go, it has already been one of the most successful seasons in the club's history but we know that it could have be so different at the end of those 90 minutes on Saturday against Inverness.

"Our form, from a league point of view has been disappointing, because I know that a few of the lads felt that we had a squad who were capable of finishing in the top six.

"We got off to a tough start and ever since then we found ourselves swimming against the tide a bit.

"But one semi-final, another final and qualifying for Europe for the first time in our history means that this season will go down as one of the most successful ever for the club and for a lot of the lads personally."