Hearts can bury Rosenborg with rocking Tynecastle and Welcome to Hell prize should sound like heaven - Ryan Stevenson

When I was a wee boy kicking a ball around in my village in Ayrshire, I’d dream of two things – playing for Scotland and being good enough to play European football.

I’m afraid the former didn’t come to pass but I realised my other ambition in 2011/2012 when Hearts had a crack at making the Europa League only to run into a brilliant Spurs team and that was that. But in the round before Tottenham, we got a Hungarian side called Paksi and after a 1-1 draw away, we beat them 4-1 at Tynecastle and I managed to score twice. It remains a career high for me and I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

European football is the pinnacle. It’s what you work your butt off for throughout the previous season – to finish high enough to be rewarded with it and as yesterday’s draw for the Europa Conference League play-off round was made, I was back there wishing I could experience it all over again. Hearts take on Rosenborg on Thursday and I’ll get to that in a minute. If they get through, they now know they’ll take on either Hajduk Split from Croatia – a team with a fine European tradition – or PAOK from Greece, who have one of the continent’s most volatile supports.

I remember they played Rangers in Europe a while back and it was genuine ‘Welcome To Hell’ stuff with fires in the stands and the whole bit. If I were still a Hearts player, I would be hoping against hope to get through and face the Greeks because those are the kind of games you should live for as a footballer.

I’d love to touch down at a foreign airport, trying to get through hordes of mad fans who have turned up with their banners howling abuse at you. But first things first. Hearts have to take care of Rosenborg before they can think of their next destination.

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