Hearts stars should bounce in for Celtic face off like I did and can adopt my Virgil van Dijk mentality - Ryan Stevenson

Confession time. Hearts can beat Celtic on Saturday but I’m the last guy who should be talking up their Scottish Cup chances as my own record against them was absolutely s***.

I’ll get to my abysmal story against them shortly but I’d love to be standing across from the likes of Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate, Jota and Kyogo inside the Tynecastle tunnel at noon tomorrow. These are the moments which sum up everything a professional footballer should want, an opportunity to prove you belong alongside the best. It gives me butterflies just thinking about it and the Hearts players need to believe, if they don’t then what is the point of turning up?

Every single one of them needs to bounce into that stadium tomorrow morning, it’s about being positive, there’s no reason why they can’t beat Celtic. The Tynecastle tunnel is what I miss most about playing for Hearts. As crazy as it sounds, if we were playing Celtic I would scan up and down their line as they waited for the referee to lead us out and I’d zone in on someone like Virgil van Dijk.

I’d give him the angry look and mouthing under my breath, “I’m going to destroy you today, I’m going to roast you.” I realise how stupid this sounds but that’s what I did. Don’t get me wrong, it would never happen but that was just my mentality.

Even inside the dressing room I’d constantly be asking Gary Locke how long was there to go before we were allowed out. Billy Brown would be bouncing around talking to players and the boss Jim Jefferies was always really placid before games.

“How long to go Lockie?” How long to go?” He’d give a countdown, ‘five, four three.....” Then I’d be inside that tunnel. There’s a bottom line in Scottish football. You need to do well against the Old Firm to be