HEARTS legend Gary Mackay admits that he and his old teammates will be as committed as they would be in an Edinburgh derby when they take part in the Scottish Masters this weekend.
The Tynecastle old boys will take on Celtic, Rangers and Dundee United at Braehead tomorrow and Sunday in one of the regional heats for the British Masters, which takes place later this year.
While the tournament is as much about reminiscing and
meeting up for a pint as it is the football itself, Mackay, below, insisted that it'll only be an enjoyable occasion if the Jambos walk off with the trophy.
He may have played his last competitive match for Hearts back in 1997, but he's still as determined as ever to go out and get a victory in a maroon shirt.
Mackay is joined in the Jambos' squad by the likes of Scott Crabbe, Henry Smith, Jose Quitongo, Lee Makel, Kenny Black and Alan Lawrence and he reckons they'll all go to Glasgow with victory on their minds.
He said: "These things are great to be involved in but this is football and you only enjoy it when you win – even when it's something like this!
"A few of the boys, particularly in the Scottish Masters, had a choice of which club they were going to play for, Darren Jackson used to play for us but he's with Celtic now, Dave Bowman used to be our captain but he plays for Dundee United."
Having lifted the trophy with Hearts once before, he'd love to repeat that feat this weekend – even though they ended up losing heavily in the national finals later in the year, and he continued: "We have won the competition before and that was great, we all really enjoyed that and even though you're not playing at a professional level it's still nice to go out there, get a bit of a kick around and lift a cup at the end of it.
"The winners from all of the regional heats go down south to take part in the main tournament – and we enjoyed that part as well even though we got humped!"
Some of the other squads in the competition have impressive names in their pool of players, most notably Celtic, who have former Parkhead striker Pierre Van Hooijdonk in their line-up.
Mackay admits that the Hearts squad is not getting any younger but is keeping his fingers crossed that their combined experience will be enough to see them to victory against the younger sides in the tournament.
While revealing that he will start the competition on the bench, making way for the more youthful in the side, he continued: "We've looked at a few of the squads and it's good to see that people like Pierre Van Hooijdonk are coming along this time.
"Obviously our squad is getting that wee bit older but we're hoping that experience is more important than youth in this case!
"However, we all know each other pretty well and have played together before, there's an understanding there so maybe that will work in our favour."
Because of their involvement with the Hearts Community and Education Trust, the majority of the Hearts squad have already played a few matches over the course of the last year. As a result they haven't met up to train but Mackay is hoping that the camaraderie and understanding that they have re-established in recent times will be a bonus for them.
"We don't meet up to train beforehand, we actually have played a lot of games over the past 12 months or so because of our involvement with the Hearts Community and Education Trust.
"We're playing quite frequently as it is and have probably taken part in ten or 12 games in the last year. We all know one another fairly well anyway, with a few of the boys having played together in the same team.
"The boys in our squad keep themselves fairly fit anyway and Lee Makel is still involved in the professional game as a player.
"Crabbo is working with East Fife so he keeps himself fit, Henry is still involved with a bit of goalkeeping coaching and I think Kenny puts himself through his paces by doing 20 laps round the track every second day at Airdrie.
"So they're all fit guys. I'm not sure if their captain is quite as fit as the rest of them these days – that's why they'll all be starting the game and I'll be on the bench!"
The full article contains 765 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
